Our First Fall
by JacklynnFrost
Summary: They were born enemies, their clans have warred for generations, but their attraction draws them together in spite of the dangers. This is how Goddess Elizabeth and the Demon Prince Meliodas meet in the midst of battle and how they fall in love against all odds. Slice of Life. Fluffy Smut. True Love. Set 3,000 years ago. Art By BettyBest2
1. An Internal War

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Disclaimer: If you haven't read the Manga's there may be some spoilers (I did get inspiration from there and tried to stay as close to 'canon' as possible) so read at your own risk.

Chapter One- An internal war

I stood with my brother, half of the commandments and a few fighters hand-selected for this flank ambush team. Before us both sides were preparing. The Goddesses to the left were aligned in the air, with gold gleaming armor and bright white as if they were too privileged to be marred by this bloody war. To the left, hulking beasts, dirty and wielding rusted swords rallied to grunting howls.

This field had seen countless battles, casualties mounted for those on the front lines while the main fighters prevailed. Pawns - it seemed unfair but, in times like this, the strongest survived. It was all the more reason to succeed now. Our goal was taking out any one of the Archangels to turn the tide of the war.

"If I ever hear a horn blow again I will remove my own eardrums." A rough sandpaper voice sneered from behind me. A few of the other demons among us give a scoff in agreement. I grin, half turning to see my younger brother Zeldris standing about seven feet away, as close as my commandment allowed him. Or rather, his own feelings allowed him.

When he was younger he could get closer, but when he grew, so did the sliver of hate he had for me. Call it a rivalry, or resentment, but whatever it was that stemmed this between us, it hurt. There wasn't a single being, demon included, that could get within five feet of me when I used the power of Benevolence.

A 'gift' from my father.

I used the dark emotion that stemmed from seeing Zeldris' hate to let my demon rise, becoming sharper, honed for the upcoming bloodshed. We were getting nowhere. The goddesses deserved to be demolished but with our powers so equally matched, each battle just slowly eroded us both down. It's pointless, like slamming your own head against a wall because you're told to... I spit, disdain for being trapped in this rerun. Fight, kill, rinse, repeat. How many days has it been for this battle? How many years before that?

The trumpeters rose with my ire, darkness whipping about as I sensed a goddess heading in our direction. Someone was lost, or planning their own surprise for this battle. They are unlucky, to stumble onto us. I bared my teeth, feeling myself slip into the dark version of myself. Why not kill one little lost Goddess? Who's here to enforce the rules of war, when we are both sneaking around...

My team sensed the incoming energy, growing restless. A rough-cut grizzly demon growled in warning. Another hushed him with a swift gut punch. Zeldris surprised me, struggling to step closer to me and I turned to watch as the pressure of his hate halts him. The more he struggled the easier his hate would bring him to his knees. The more you fight, the harder it is to escape. It made the slaughter effortless.

"Someone is an idiot." Zeldris hisses, low and ominous. "A dead idiot."

Just ahead, along the tree line, a silver-haired womanly form looked out toward the armies that have gathered. She stepped out, going toward the center of the field as if she planned to walk out there, when she stopped and turned, spotting us. Her face was soft, her blue eyes stunning, but marred with the Goddess triskelion glowing inside them. I looked her up and down, appreciating her short-skirted dress and skin-tight black pants. Her breasts were perfect, round globes.

I expected her to scurry off, already raising my right hand to send one of my men after her but she rose into the air, flying toward me. How surprised will this little girl be when she is forced to kneel before me? Delicious vindication, from her own feelings of demon hatred - she'd be powerless. Goddesses were affected the most, their anger engraved into their being. Her flight never slows, her two sets of wings fluttering for only a second as she lands within sword range, right before me.

What is this? A trick?

With a flick of my darkness, I intensify my Commandments aura and I hear my brother grunt as he is forced back another step, the others under my command physically shielding their faces from the power. The Goddess just tilted her head, looking me over. How... strange. A novelty among the monotony?

Who is this girl? Did she truly not hate me... even with my darkness eking out and bordering into my demon self? Her eyes were clear of any indication she knew what was going on, her brows even furrowed together as she spots those behind me stepping away from us.

"Please." The goddess pleads, her voice a cool gentle breeze in the desert. "No one wants to fight, to continue to war on. Not deep in their hearts... this bloodshed is pointless." I was waiting to feel her goddess breath, at the first hint of their mental powers I would decapitate her. I am tensed to strike, but it never came. Many had tried to take control of me and none had lived to attempt it a second time.

Her words sunk in, a mirror of my own earlier thoughts. Yet, coming from her they sounded idealist and hopeful. Naive. She was fighting her fate when I had resigned myself to mine.

"No amount of pleading will spare you." Derieri spoke, sounding bored. The goddess' eyes roamed to find the owner of the voice, and she flushed when she saw she was naked, clothed only in her own darkness. Is this goddess a prude or innocent? I suppose I'll never find out.

"You've stumbled unto your death," Monspiet concludes, always a step behind her. Even I could tell his feelings but Derieri seemed oblivious to the point of denseness.

The goddesses feet touched down before me, bare and dainty. She wasn't used to walking, I could tell with just one of her long, unsure steps toward me. Her legs were lean and I appreciated them. She's taller than me by a few inches, but few weren't.

"I'll die smiling if someone, anyone, hears me. We - all the clans - are dwindling, weakening, and getting nowhere. It's pointless." Her words surprised me almost as much as her sure, steady voice. The conviction in her eyes shook me, my hearts raced with the continued eye contact.

"What power do you have to stop this? Or any of us for that matter?" I sneered as a reflex, my voice was cold and dismissive. Did she know my status among the demon clan? I couldn't bring myself to care as I was too far into my demon self, prepared for battle not for a philosophical discussion on the demerits of war.

"None, I have no power." She's honest? Surrounded by enemies and she's trying to persuade us to rethink our position? She takes a small breath, "but change must start somewhere. My own people won't listen to reason and I thought maybe if someone, anyone could see what I do... We are killing ourselves over-"

A fist size stone slams into the side of her head, surprising us both. She hunches, clutching the side of her skull as blood starts to drip. Her little hand is covered in dripping red and I hear Galand laughing just as the war horns blew.

I hold my palm up, steadying my troops. Those under my command drop into their fighting stance, preparing, and the armies clash together before us in a thunderous crash of metal with pops of magical explosions, war cries and snapping bones. My palm clenches to a fist and my team rushes the battlefield, moving out of reach of my commandments influence.

"The ground!" The girl yells at the back of my comrades "there are traps etched into the..." but none of them bother to listen. She'd just betrayed her clan to warn us, and it went unnoticed. She'd just sustained a blow, bled from an attack from one of them, yet still tried to spare them. What is this girl? Clutching the side of her head she turned to look at me again, her determination still shining but tears welled and something twanged in my hollow chest cavity, echoing.

I watched behind her as the first wave of demons hit the holy symbols and light arks exploded, sending them up a few feet with blood and limbs flying. Not enough to kill, just to slow and maim. She'd been telling the truth.

"You betrayed your people." Her eyes flash at my statement, anger there.

"My people? Everyone deserves to live." I vibrated with tension under her stare, confused why I didn't want to join the fight. My darkness itched to shed some blood but my feet stayed rooted, trapped by this whip of a girl's innocent eyes.

"Get out of here." I tell her, stepping closer still surprised when she's unfazed by my aura. This close I could smell her faint sweet smell, like cloves and sugared apples. I had loved those when I was a child.

I stepped around her, just to pause in my route, her shoulders hunched and she started crying. "I failed... I'm useless." She says so low I'm unsure I heard right, she turns, her shining, wet eyes are bottomless blue as she whispers "Why am I the only one that sees what we've become?" I shudder, masking my reaction by forming wings from my darkness, taking to the sky to be at eye level and avoid the traps she'd risked her life to warn us about.

What have we become? I look out at the battlefield, behind her... and I see it, the blood - demon or goddess, it was red. She started to look, turning toward the battle to see what I was looking at and I felt the need to spare her from the horror. I didn't want her to be tainted.

"My goal is to end this war." I state, honest. She freezes, her eyes going wide and she smiled at me. It was the brightest thing I'd ever seen, even with the blood on her face. My hearts raced all at once, a great humming reverberated in my torso; it almost hurt, that's how full I felt. Even gored and tear-stained, she reminded me of sunshine on a cloudless day. Too bright but pleasantly warm. I basked in her glow, my demon side fading before sense returned in a crash as a severed, bloody head wetly slapped a few feet before me and bounced into the brush of the trees.

She was too close. Protect.

My aura stopping anyone on either side from getting near and I felt gratitude for this curse for the first time since I've received this power. "Go," I order her, using my hand command as if she would listen or even knows my order, the war demon inside of me returning. "The long way, behind me." I force myself away from her, determined not to look back, steeling myself to enter a battle I didn't want to be in anymore. My already shaky will to fight had been stomped out with a few tears.

"... what about you?" Her sweet voice called after me and I cursed myself for stopping.

"I'll be fine" I added a dark, angry look to emphasize my point as I demand, "Don't watch, just go."

"When will I see you again?" Was she having a hard time separating from me... too? I scowled at myself, angry that this war meant so many things - one thing being that a Goddess and a Demon couldn't see each other again. She knew the answer, so why had she asked?

"I don't see how we could." Angry, dark wisps of flames flicker around me as the leader of the archangels spots me in the treeline. The goddess follows and I can see the shock on that self-righteous pricks face as she can move freely while my aura prevented him from doing the same. I grinned, basking in the hate it provoked in him. It fed me, my power growing as his feelings did the same.

"Get out of there!" He howls at her, a scolding yell that stirred the anger boiling in my belly. Don't talk to her like that. His light energy morphed into an ark, flying from his grip as he yelled "Beast, get away from her! I am your opponent!" His aim was off, wide to the right and I had a fraction of a second to comprehend the attack was going to hit her. She wasn't even looking!

Instinct took over and I flew with a sharp propulsion of my wings to protect her, my body between hers and the attack. "Full Counter!" my giant broadsword blade connecting with the magic in a fraction of a blink. This close she whispered "heavens theater" as I felt her soft breath on the back of my neck.

Did he mean to include her in that attack? Was she so expendable? A new rage built along with a desire to teach Ludociel the punishment that came alongside messing with... that beautiful, bright creature. I didn't know her name. When she slipped into the woods I threw myself into the fight, pushing back the advancing Angels and shaping the tides of the battle.

If she turned out to be just like everyone else, I could use her in other ways. Her body came to mind and perhaps even information... She seemed easily fooled. My thoughts weighed heavy as the kills came easily.


	2. Healing Hearts

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Beta'd by Nerdy12- Thank you for taking the time to look this over. You are amazing.

Chapter Two- Healing Hearts

My heart still raced, not from the close call with Ludociel's attack, but from finding a kindred soul. Someone with the same goal...

He wanted to end the war!

A bubble of relief welled inside, washing me clean of the nagging loneliness which had been a constant companion of mine for so long. Someone heard me and, more than that, agreed! How many circles had I talked myself into with Ludociel and the others? With every Goddess that would listen, to all the fighters, supporters, and to the council themselves and none of them expressed wanting to end this pointless fight.

A demon... my ally is a demon. It still rattled me to my core.

The war waged on. Screams were cut short and metal on metal rang through the air. Creatures of the woods had long abandoned this place. The designated war ground for the head-on battle royale. Countless challenges had been set and matched here, to the point where anything alive in these woods had long since abandoned their home.

With a few adjustments to my flying course, I found a tree with a branch to step on, holding on to another as I tried to see the fighting. The demon had told me to leave; so had Ludociel, but this was something I had to do... The only thing I could do.

I revived the fallen, those so close to death neither side bothered with their tattered bodies. The Goddess clan seemed to exhaust all their energy in the battle, they must not have enough to heal those they felt were too far gone, and the demons seemed to only cart back the ones they knew would survive the wounds. If all I can do is undo a fraction of the damage done, then that will be my burden.

The sun set and the air chilled; wind blew at my long silver locks and dress. Tears streamed down my cheeks as the cries died down to low grunts and exhausted final efforts. I didn't bother trying to wipe them away; they would last as long as the fighting did. The end was nigh. Worry plagued me, for both sides, although more heavily for the people I knew. It was only natural, but guilt settled in as if a twisted thorn jabbed at my insides.

Was that demon a leader? He was the one at the helm of his ambush party. Was his hair always that messy? At least he wore clothes, unlike that lady demon in his party. His demon tendrils had covered some of his skin though, so perhaps that black sleeveless vest was not true fabric. I shook my head, trying to expel the thoughts.

He probably wouldn't even show up. If I was him, or if he had told me a location, I would think it was a trap. Or just scope it out from a distance and never actually go. I cursed myself. Heaven's theater had been a neutral zone when there had been peace among the clans, and it had long since been abandoned. It was my safe place, where I could escape from all the failed expectations of my people. Now I'd always think of him when I go there seeking a reprieve.

My mind blanks as the battle draws my attention.

Was that him? A mass of dark crashed over the tree line with a huge ark and the explosion blew the leaves back from the trees. I held on, sticks and debris from the forest kicked up and assaulted me. Instinctively I shielded my face. With a hit like that he wouldn't escape unscathed. I found myself moving toward the chaos. Bystander death wasn't unheard of, although drastically reduced now that the fights raged here.

Villages on both sides were no longer decimated from the ambushes and attacks. It's like we found ways to kill each other more honorably while ignoring the fact that killing could never be. I would never understand how it came so easy to hurt another. Just the thought made me ache.

I found him among the fighting bodies, flying after the Goddess warriors with lightning speed deflections. Why didn't anyone get close to him? Were they all afraid? He didn't seem to attack, just deflect whatever was thrown at him... just like that move he did with that Ark.

With a quick survey, I shuddered at the mass of those fallen. The battlefield was strewn with lifeless corpses. The horns blew, it echoed low in my chest as if I were hollow and filling with the noise. A long breath left me and I waited for the survivors to part ways. Ludociel and my new ally were in a stare down, I couldn't hear what was being said but eventually, the blonde demon relaxed his stance, moved his massive broadsword to rest the hilt on his shoulder and flew backward, his black wings kicking up dust in its wake. Ludociel looked furious but spun in mid-air and headed towards our territory.

They both looked pretty torn up. Ludociel would be healed at the tents in a moment but that Demon would have to heal the long way.

I did hear their darkness could seal wounds. Did it leave them undamaged or was it a superficial heal? Judging by the numbers those left behind to die, it must not truly heal.

A few goddesses and a few demons picked up moaning comrades and carried them in opposite directions. This war, this battle had been going on for months and in the end, this bloody dance routine still left me shaking. I don't remember the last full day I didn't shed tears. I've grown used to puffy lids and wet chins.

When the last of the fighters picked their fallen free and disappeared into the tree line, I glided out into the open. The bodies were concentrated away from this side of the tree line but I didn't think much of it as I drip my anguish over the dead. The drops bloomed flowers where they fell as I scanned the tree line to make sure I would go unnoticed. I couldn't unleash my light but as I guided over to those close to death, I radiated life, dull and unnoticeable from either demon or goddess troop encampments because too much power would just spark another fight. My healing aura would invigorate the ones close to death, to give them enough strength to rise again... to get home

...and live.

I turned, taking a weary breath to start my long route home. I had to go before my power was detected, or one of the revived spotted me. On my way out, I stopped, my heart racing. I recognized the face of a fallen demon. I calmed when I saw the black hair. Was he dead? I dropped to my feet, touched his neck and I closed my eyes in relief. He'd benefit from my aura, but I still looked him over.

How many of his hearts had been destroyed? He hadn't turned to an Indura so he must still have two. I didn't know him, but his similar features to my new friend is enough for me to know he was important to him. Their faces were near identical, although laying here, this one looked softer, kinder than my new friend. The defining difference is the blonde hair versus the black, and I would bet anything this was a brother or close relative.

One of the main driving forces of this continued war is the loss of loved ones.

When your brother, your cousin, or your lifelong friend laid their life down for their clan it feels like a betrayal to not fight when the battle called again. If my new ally's face-twin died, would he continue to want to end the war? A silver angel blade was stuck in his center heart. If left in, he would die. He had a fifty-fifty chance of waking in time to pull it out.

For the first time in my life, I gripped the hilt of a weapon. I pulled. His body rose up with the blade and I sobbed openly. Shit. No. no. His red shirt looked wet from the blood as it flopped open where it had been torn from the impact. He had a hole where another of his hearts had been. He'd taken a beating.

Mael. The sun's grace left bubbling burns and with his chest exposed I spot them.

It was intentional, leaving him to die like this rather than risk the unleashing of his 'true nature', the indura within. I centered myself. I didn't have the strength to free him from this but I could reform his heart, I could improve his chances from fifty to at least eighty percent to live. Slowly, I grazed the tips of my fingers over his open chest, his insides growing back with the light trickling from me. He groaned.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," I whispered, surprised how hoarse my voice sounded. Have I exhausted my power that much? With the last heart regrown, I placed my palm over the first and I frowned, it wasn't beating. Would that take time or was the Angel blade blocking his own natural regeneration? I had to get it out.

I placed my foot on his chest, gripped the hilt of the blade with both hands and with all my might yanked as I pushed down with my leg muscles. It. wouldn't. Budge. My tears sped up, frustration welled.

"Why can't I do anything right?" I scratched out through my sobs. "Why can't I save you?" I hunched, moving my foot from his chest and falling to my knees. Just as I looked him over again his eyes popped open. Green? His eyes roved over my wings, green eyes flowed into a dark ominous black.

'Oh, shit.'

The world blinked out, an endless world of nothingness... but a light, in the distance. I ran for it, my feet not touching anything so I used my wings and there was no resistance. I'm floating? The light grew and overcame the darkness until a familiar face was over me, staring his angry eyes down into me.

"Why in the name of the Supreme Deity, are you fighting in this battle, Elizabeth?" Mael demanded he didn't want an answer, and his long hair frizzed out around him. I was in his embrace. "You haven't mastered even the rudimentary light blade. How could you think for a moment that you could do anything to help." I flushed, pushing out of his one arm hold.

I wasn't on the battlefield anymore. The white lights and the soft-faced goddess in a troops assistant uniform giving me a clue of my location. "I'm at the encampment?" I asked, looking at the healer.

"Yes, you weren't physically injured but you were... well, it felt like you were stuck in a dream." She answers. A soft smile graced her weary, tired face. This was a job I always considered taking. The healers stayed on the barracks near the troops to heal those returned from the fight. It was appealing, only I opposed the war -so didn't want to participate in a part of it- and I wanted to heal everyone harmed. Even the demons.

"Ludociel informed me that he had seen you on the battlefield. I can hardly begin to-" Mael started his reprimand but the kind healer slapped his hand away as I sat up on my own.

"She's finally found her clan pride, be grateful she saw the merit in fighting at all." The healer was sticking up for me, but I didn't feel right about it. I had no idea who she was but she obviously knew of me, of my ideas on warring.

"I wasn't fighting," I tell them, flushing but steeling myself for their reaction. "I was trying to stop it before it even started." Mael scoffed, his arms crossing as he stepped away from the cot. The tent walls didn't do much in way of privacy and the guy one cot over humorously laughed.

"What naive idealist cunt would think in their right minds... Let's stop a war by going to a battlefield?" His laugh continued cruelly as the healer pulled the divider back to poke her head into his area. He continued, unfazed. "Did the demons listen to your heartfelt plea?" He mocked a high pitched "Please beasts of darkness, stop your true nature of destroying everything you touch and let's be friends."

"She's young. Barely into her wings." The healer explained and I looked back at my one set of fully grown wings and my smaller baby wings that had grown. I only had four wings, an indication of my power level among our people.

"One did, someone listened!" I exclaimed with a catch to my voice and I surprised myself because I did sound like a child. Mael laughed with the soldier before he spoke, cockily.

"No doubt a deception. You are so easily fooled. They are laughing at your back as we speak." Mael scoffed. He meant 'behind my back', but I kept my mouth shut as I didn't think it would help my position if I corrected him.

"My own people already do that, what's the difference?" I hissed as my face burned in embarrassment. I stood, walking the few steps from the tent and as soon as the fabric parted to the exit, I took to the skies.

The people below were around campfires, cooking their own pots and somberly reuniting with their friends. If they thought I was young, then half of those below me were children by extension. Some were embracing one another and others were mourning, but all of them barely had wings or only one set. Walking with your feet was the usual indication of your loss and I was the only one in the skies tonight. As I flew over I could hear them asking after one another, trying to figure out how much and how many they lost.

Out of the encampment, past the tents and barracks, Mael caught up with me again. I must be tired, as my flying is usually faster than this. At my side, we made our way towards our home in the sky. The goddess clan's floating island. It hovered over our territory, usually roaming, but lately it's stayed close to the farmland and the barracks for backup. He was quiet and I was grateful for it.

"I know what you were doing," Mael hushes, softer than he's been with me in weeks. I faltered in my flight but scowled. I had nothing to be ashamed of. "I found your body surrounded by flowers. You were healing them. The fallen."

Whatever Mael did with that information could mean a complete change in my lifestyle. Lady Graelle would never let me leave the temple. I would be assigned, or worse appointed someone's ward.

"Please, don't cry." Mael pleaded.

"I don't even notice doing it anymore," I whisper, meeting his eyes and I know he heard. With a heavy breath, I swipe at my face.

"Elizabeth... you don't understand what you are doing," Mael says and I can already hear his condescending explanation of what he's going to say next as I've heard it so many times. "Killing these demons frees them from their darkness. Their souls go on."

"Who decides that?" I shout, the goddess Island in sight above us. "How is it that our people killing isn't a crime, as we are freeing souls, but if anyone else does it, it's unforgivable? Take a good hard look in the mirror, Mael!"

I glared with all my might but, rather than the anger I was expecting, he looked at me with desperation.

"Don't go to the battlefield again! Any demon would kill you if given even half a chance. It's their way." His general concerned voice made me feel guilty but I shook it off, pinching my face and turning away. We were here, the stone walls, with the overlarge goddess women holding open the gates. Men with weapons patrolled the tops of the wall.

"It's wrong," I say, entering the gates but turning towards the temple to separate us.

The streets were empty, the homes dark, and I passed the Archangel's compound. That's where Mael would be heading but as he wasn't hovering around me, he was allowing me my space. I approached the temple, taking in the tall building with the Supreme Deity's likeness protruding from the front. It was our most prominent monument, while the building itself was our least visited. Only young women, uncoupled and too old to live in Charity's home, were permitted.

It was a way station for most, but some who never take up the family life end up maintaining the temple their whole lives. Like Lady Graelle. As soon as I pushed open the double doors on the side of our oversized Supreme Deity's legs to step in, a rag whipped out and slapped my upper arm.

"You are hours, HOURS past curfew young lady!" Lady Graelle's angry, aged face had a heavy brow and thin pursed lips. She must have known I was coming. I've seen this face many times. My pleas and apologies go unheard as she snaps her rag at me to guide me to my room. Beside the grand staircase across from the entrance, I fly up about twelve feet to the open archway on the left in the ornate, gold wall. With the ability to fly, most of the archways in the cylindrical room lead to different sections of the temple. The grand archway in the center was the only one with stairs and that was where those that prayed and worshiped gathered.

Lady Graelle couldn't punish me but I knew there would be extra cleaning duties for me over the next couple of days. If I had to scrap pigeon poop off the Supreme Diety's head one more time...

Once in my room, Lady Graelle slammed my door and I feel a duality between resignation and indignity. My mind wondered while alone and I looked over my meager possessions.

My twin bed with the soft blue flowered blanket beside my dresser, the desk opposite my bed and the window between the two on the far wall. Nothing matched but the soft pastels made it feel calm in here. The window sill was free of clutter, as I didn't have much to clutter my space with, but I could sit there when I wanted to look at the sky and imagine a different life for myself.

I put on my nightdress, laying down to sleep with my mind racing from all that happened today. Would that demon show up to the theater? What if Lady Graelle made me clean the bathrooms? Ew. Could I sneak out after my regular responsibilities to rendezvous? Did that dark-haired man knock me out after I saved him? I guess he didn't kill me... so thanks?

Sleeping was restless and I awoke a few times still thinking about Mael's words and hearing my Demon ally tell me "My goal is to end this war." A small fire sparked in my chest. I recognized the feeling, something I haven't felt in a long time. Hope. Smiling, I fell back into dreams.


	3. Heaven's Theater

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Three- Heaven's Theater

It's been three days and each time I visited Heaven's theater the fire of hope dimmed. It was now a little candle flickering in my hollow chest. He wasn't going to show. The sponge slopped on the tile and I squeezed the soapy water out to spread it. My bucket was dirty brown and I cursed anyone who walked when flying was a viable option. Floors wouldn't get dirty if they just used their goddess-given wings!

I sighed, other races did meet here. This compound was designed to accommodate those without wings so I couldn't be too upset.

Footsteps approached and I scowled at my mushed reflection in the gleaming white tiles. My face was flushed, my silver hair curling and rustled about. If it's Nerobasta coming to gloat again I would accidentally spill my bucket on her overfull bust!

Lady Graelle's punishment had extended to cleaning the Archangels compound, and while it wasn't unheard of for them to request priestess assistance it was unusual for it to be to this extent. Polishing the trophy room? Come on! No one ever went in there! Mael had to be involved with this somehow. Had he ratted me out or just requested all the work to keep me busy and away from the wounded? How many died without my help...?

"Ah-hem." A man coughed from behind and I turned, expecting Mael, but finding Ludociel. "I'm glad you are finally doing something useful for us." His eyes twinkled as he looked around at the gleaming room. I even dusted the over-sized portraits of all the Archangels that have come before, the current four at the center over the conference room. The fountain in the center had goddess women with full busts spitting water out of their mouths- they too were freshly de-mucked.

"At least I'm not leading hundreds of kids to their deaths over a misguided belief." All my frustration from being stood up by that demon and scrubbing to the point that my elbows hurt flowed free. Perhaps unearned but I felt with everyone kneeling to Ludociel like he was god, someone needed to show him he wasn't infallible.

"You have no idea what's going on." He rebuked, looking down at me in more than just the physical sense. His smirk told me he knew a secret that I didn't and it rattled me. "There's been a truce called. No more fighting and we are in talks of establishing a treaty."

I dropped my sponge, sitting up in awe. What? "Truly?" I whispered and he grins as a door opens to my left. When Ludociel nods I'm up on my feet in a flash and wrapping him up in the biggest hug I could muster. My face pressed against the cold metal of his chest armor. The killing, the dying, it was over! His hand awkwardly comes up to pat the top of my head.

"I see now I should have let you tell her the news," Ludociel soothed, with a flush I step away not understanding what he meant until I see he isn't looking at me, but at his brother Mael. Mael seemed to barely take in what was in front of him, dazed. Is he okay? Ludociel notices too, turning away from me with barely a glance as he takes his brother by the shoulder and leading him out to the left.

"Too evenly matched fighting head on..." I hear as the two fades into the distance. I put away the polishing supplies, not bothering to finish my final task of cleaning the conference room. Maybe Lady Graelle will be so happy about the news she will forget about the rest of my tasks. I didn't want to clean the displays of the purity flowers, no one ever went in that room as that practice is long dead. With a rush, I run from the Compound diving into flight at the top of the stairs. I fly straight up, spinning in the air as I kick off toward Heaven's theater.

I weaved through the clouds, enjoying the cool mist that clung to me from the wet impact with the white puffs of water particles. No more death! We could make peace, we could have an end to this hate between our clans! I couldn't help but imagine running into that demon I met or his black-haired relative some years from now on neutral territory. Just casually waving, friendly, a normal occurrence.

The theater was in view and I did a long, dancing lap around the abandoned floating stage. When I landed I spun in the center, wiping the cloud dew from my face and shaking my hair free around my shoulders. I wasn't steady on my feet but I hadn't been happy in so long that the need to move bubbled up and I danced. The only one I knew was the Goddess dance of welcome and I tiptoed, dipping low and arching as I flipped, taking to a jog as I attempted to pirouette... but this theater was covered in debris from its years of neglect and my toe catches a chunk.

I trip. Ungracefully I slammed into the blocks of the floor, a resounded "crack" echoed as my skull took the brunt of the fall. With a laugh I rolled over, arm coming up to feel the lump. Head wounds always looked worse than they were but with a small swipe I healed the ache.

"I didn't think I'd get a show... but it is a theater." A voice called out, heavy in humor. I flinched, instinctively drawing up in the air, and looking for the source. He'd come... and he was sitting in the front center stone of the staggered audience rows. "Are you okay?" He asked, pointing to my head, with a touch I realized I had bled again. I hurriedly used my dress hem to wipe it away, flushing as my white dress stains red.

When I look back over at him, his green eyes are alight, a smirk playing at his lips as he stares at my exposed tummy. I flush, pushing my bloodied dress back down and immediately looking for the exit. Humiliation overload. He noticed, standing up and holding his hands out, palms to me.

"Wait!" He says and I pause, turning to look back at him. "I can guess you heard the news, about the truce?" His voice is clear, carefree and I look him over. He had a black vest with four point buttons, white pants that cut off at the calves and tipped shoes with no socks. He didn't have an ounce of darkness radiating from him.

He brought his sword. I spotted it strapped to his lower back and put some more space between us. Why would he need that massive cleaver? Was this a trap? Or had he thought I had set up a trap for him?

"Look, I'll take it off." He noticed what alarmed me from this far away? I watched as he stood, unsnapping the buckle at his side and set the blade on the stone bench behind him. Slowly, he stepped away from it, his hands moving to his pockets as he rocks on his heels as if he hadn't a care in the world. He looked around at the theater, the crumbling stage, ruined pillars and the stepping stones that lead to the top viewing area. Over that and out of view is a long walkway to the old community tower, full of junk and crumbling rooms. It had been beautiful in its day, I'd seen paintings. Of course, the demon didn't fool me. He may be looking around but his focus is on me.

Slowly, I descended to the stage, moving closer. The war had ended, what reason did he have to come? Was he curious? Dread settled in but I ignored it. We met our gazes.

"I'm Meliodas." His voice is kind like he didn't want to spook me. "I thought I would see if you were here..."

The tears came, filling and overflowing. I cursed to myself. "I'm sorry, Meliodas." I tell him, testing out his name while pinching my eyes closed in a vain attempt to stop them from falling.

"Why are you crying?" He asked, bending down to look up at me from below.

"I'm just happy you came," I tell him and a slow grin spread across his face.

"Say that again, only slower." He commands in a devious voice and I flush, confused. He laughs, the sound swallowing the silence and I find myself smiling back at him involuntarily.

"You're different from before," I note, his collar was still popped and his aura still radiated power just under the surface but without his darkness leaking or his demon mark on his head, he was like another person. Less malicious. I flushed.

"So are you." He noted, "but the same where it counts." He mutters, looking me over, up and down slowly. Was it the blood on my dress that drew his eye to my waistline? I flush, feeling like he looked at me differently than others did.

"Well, there is one thing you must know, as my friend," I tell him, steadying. "I cry. Any emotion that gets too big for me just... leaks out." He nods seriously as if he is mentally taking notes.

"Funny, I thought the first thing I'd need to know, as a new friend... would be your name." Meliodas' face shifts, his eyes relaxing as his teeth show in a full grin. He was... teasing me?

Oh!

"Elizabeth." I hold out my hand, for a handshake and he looks at it before taking it in his hand. He's rough, calloused and solid but the touch of his skin to mine sends tingles down my spine and when I meet his eyes, he looks just as surprised. I pull away, face hot as I tuck my hands behind my back, under my wings.

"Did you tell anyone about meeting me?" He asked, innocently enough and I felt a little foolish that I hadn't now that I was alone with him.

"No."

He smiled again, sitting down to look up at the few clouds around us. "Me either." For some reason, that made me happy and I watched his face for a moment as he paid no attention to me. I remember his harsh expression and intense gaze from before the battle but this Meliodas was different. He seemed like a regular guy my age. After a few beats, I stepped around, taking a seat beside him to see what had captured his attention so.

The sky was clearing, freedom in blue with wisps of white. The sun was descending and through the clouds, the light refracted into an array of different colors. The light played on the stones before us.

"You know... it's silly that after my Resistance went from one member to two, the fighting stops." I say as a rue smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. I peer at him sideways. A snort escapes him.

"Resistance?" He asks, looking so carefree as he closes his eyes to the sun. His skin almost looked golden under the rays. Slowly, emerald eyes opened and he tilted his head to look at me, a little guarded. "Did you stay and watch the battle?"

"I watch the ones I can," I whisper, thinking back to all the pain I'd seen. The broken bodies and lifeless eyes. Tears welled and I turned away incapable of meeting his eyes as I hugged my knees. "I... invigorate the fallen... to make them strong enough to return to their loved ones. So they can get home... even if it's just one more time." I rest my chin on my knees and hold on to my own elbows after glaring at my useless hands for a second. "It's all I can do," I whisper to myself. It's stupid wishing for more influence or power now that the truce was in place.

It didn't matter how it ended, as long as it did.

"Elizabeth?" He asked, I waited and when he didn't continue I lifted my head from my knees to look over at him. Although still soft and green, he was guarded. "Do you know who I am?"

With a frown, I answered "Meliodas, a warrior swordsman. Right?" I look over his shoulder at the weapon he had left there. He nods, grinning his eye-closed grin as he stands. "Are you leaving?" The sky was fading into orange now that the sun was past the cloud line.

"I have to get back." He walks to his sword and I stand too, unsure how to say goodbye. I wanted to see him again but I found myself unable to ask him to meet me. My voice refused to cooperate and I rubbed my hands together nervously, interlacing my own fingers repeatedly. "I can return here in three days." He says, refastening his weapon to his hip.

"Yes!" I shout a little too excited but I grinned, relieved. He brought his palm up to run down his torso. A nervous tick? He'd done it before the battle the last time I'd seen him. Unable to form any words I held up three fingers, my thumb and the first two on my right hand. His darkness exuded out in a slow-growing tendril, making his collars longer before wings sprouted out of his back and he took to the sky.

Playfully, I rose up too, watching him go. When he looked back, I waved, the clouds swallowing him up.


	4. New Treaty

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Four- New Treaty

"Where have you been?!" I snapped, lashing out at my brother with the dark-energy whip that encased my arm. Ludociel had been formidable, which only solidifies my belief that the goddess girl is right. In the end, we will all die if the fighting continues. Our blows were met with equal blows, our death tolls matching theirs.

"I was caught up," Zeldris said, looking flushed for a split second and eyeing me with suspicion. What?

"Did you run off to that bloodsucker?" Our troop commander, Chandler, sneered. I rolled my eyes. If there was an 'instantly piss my brother off' button, that was it. Chandler is an old man with white tufts of hair around his head, a sagging round face, dark black eyes and a scar that spanned from above his right eye to that same cheek. He'd been the man to train me in my younger years and the skills he had passed down to me have kept me alive. My master loved pushing my brother into a rage.

"Zeldris' first priority is his obligation to the clan." Cusack retorted, quick to come to my brother's defense. The man was tall, easily the tallest of us three with long black hair and a mustache that grew out past his chin. His long face accentuated his constant frown. What Chandler was to me, Cusack was to Zeldris. The pair of masters matched in the regal robes of those closest to the royal family, our crests always on their backs.

"I have set up a meeting with Loduciel." I state, finally able to share my news as Zeldris had graced us with his presence. The bickering old men ceased before a barrage of questions were unleashed on me from the two, talking over one another annoyingly, to the point of incomprehension. Zeldris' eyebrow rose, the only indication that he heard me.

"Leave us," Zeldris demanded of our two high commanders. "Now." The two scoffed but listened, exiting the room with heavy footfalls and grumbling. We were staying on a wasted farm, our troops resting in the open field with magic domes overhead to protect them from the elements while us brothers held meeting in the worn down, commandeered home.

"This war is slowly eroding us away," I state, mentally preparing for a heated discussion. A list of pros forming with each of my imagined attacks my brother would note. Instead of a fight, Zeldris shocks me.

"One little girl doesn't hate you and you've buckled," Zeldris jeered, and her clear blue eyes flash in my mind's eyes- so determined. "Just because she doesn't hate you, doesn't mean she will ever be with you."

"Regardless," I start, feeling my demon rise with his goading, I resist. Holding my inner demon back had always come easily but this time I had to keep my eyes closed before I knew they were clear. "You know battling is pointless. A death for a death..." I trail off, surprised at my brother. Our talks have usually devolved into trading blows by now. Half the farmhouse no longer stood from our last 'discussion'.

Dismissively, Zeldris crosses his arms. "If you can somehow negotiate a fair treaty with those self-righteous dolts, I'll eat my own socks."

"Neither of us wears socks," I note and a hint of easy-going Zeldris surfaces with his smirk, I respond in kind, relaxing. "I will attempt it, perhaps Ludociel can be reasoned with... A truce before negotiations begin, even if it's a small reprieve in the war, isn't that worth a shot?"

"Fine," Zeldris conceded "but you haven't fooled me." He turns on his heels, leaving and I notice he had a few holes in the back of his shirt, where his hearts are. His skin unmarred as if he hadn't just been in a fight to the death. One of my eyes didn't open fully so how was he this well off?

"Yo!" I shout, my brother's stocky frame halting at the door, hand resting on the handle. "You don't have a scratch on you but your clothes are dangling rags. Hell, three of my ribs are still broken just from that Ark that blasted us apart." His snarl is the only answer and when he leaves he slams the door behind him, shaking the unstable frame of the farmhouse.

What in the fuck?

With time to spare, I brainstormed a strategy. For one, cease the fighting with the goal of a treaty. If that could be accomplished, I'd meet the goddess. Of course, I needed to find out where this Heaven's theater is. It wouldn't be like any demon I knew could give me directions... except maybe a very old one. I knew just the one to ask, he was discreet enough and if I asked in just the right way he wouldn't realize the information meant anything to me. Although, it meant a night of drinking, what a hardship...

The pieces fell into place.

Ludociel agreed to a truce. Zeldris and Mael as witnesses.

I met Elizabeth. She shone so brightly in the darkness. Her dance through the clouds and fall on the stage made me feel more elated than ending the fighting had... A smile would have been enough to make the truce worth it, as the sight of her twinkling eyes and curved pouty lips, pit my hearts against one another to beat the fastest.

The days until our next meeting couldn't pass quick enough.

In strategy meetings, my thoughts wandered to the sight of her bare stomach, the flare of her hips or the curve of her collarbone. During the restructuring of our troops, I heard her voice echo in my mind. As the fighters marched home I planned our next rendezvous- wanting to do something fun.

When was the last time I had done something fun? I had to think back years, to when I was a child... but the answer came. I had just the thing. Hmm, I hope she wears a dress. That will add a secret salacious element to the game.

I grabbed what I need and ran as far as I could toward the theater. I traveled fast on foot before taking to the skies. Heaven's theater stayed stationary, close to our territories borders but with the truce, we no longer had encampments strategically placed. My commutes have doubled and my hearts hummed with anticipation.

I flew into Goddess territory and verified the Archangels also retreated their forces. It was the main point in our truce. I note their encampments are gone. I suppressed my demon energy, taking a trip around the theater. Taking me out would be a major tide changer in this war, being careful on enemy territory is ingrained in me. Yet, when I sensed her energy I hopped up to the crumbling island without checking who was above or below.

Her smile, at seeing me, it lit the world.

Fuck.

I join her on in the stands, sitting beside her about a foot away. Elizabeth tells me about her day. How she'd finally earned Lady Graelle's favor back. She lived in a type of sorority for ladies who weren't 'coupled'. Her words. Demons didn't do that. We paired off and wed, sure, but we didn't have a home for unwed ladies. Like a walkthrough wife-menu to order from. With a religious over-lady to boot, it sounded stifling.

When I leaned back to watch her mouth move, the game pieces at my feet, I slipped my hand in my pocket. Cold coins hit my knuckle and I pulled them free. I'd never seen Goddess currency so I doubt she'd ever seen the demons. Each coin had a stamped demon king seal on it, my family crest but crudely renditioned.

Her fingers grazed my palm as she took one of the offered coins.

"What is this for?" She asked, flipping it over to the other side where a beast shape loomed out of a humanoid form.

"To buy things," I explain, grinning at her as she held it up to get a better look. "If you want something, you know..."

"Goddesses give when others need, we don't have trading," Elizabeth stated. She was enamored with it. "You trade this for goods? Why not just ask if you need something?" Huh, her brows furrowed making a tiny little wrinkle between them.

"We don't give so freely, there must be an exchange," I told her. Her life must be so simple. Living in a house of women and getting whatever she asked for. Sheltered in, waiting for a man to pick her to 'couple'. Well, that part didn't sound so good. Sheltered is just another way of saying repressed.

"What if someone doesn't have anything to exchange?" That little brow wrinkle was back, her voice wavering.

"Only the strong survive." I quip, realizing my mistake as she looks down at the single gold coin in her hand. Her shoulders dropped. I should have known she'd feel compassion for the demons with nothing. "They hunt the wilds, they can work for pay." I try to recover. "There are ways to earn your keep." That perked her up. "You have it," I tell her, realizing she had no idea just how many goods she could buy with these few gold coins.

With quick steps, I stand, picking up the ball and hoop.

"Don't go!" She says. "It's a few hours to nightfall." She explains, when I look back her cheeks are flushed. Embarrassed of wanting me to stay? Oh no, sweet girl...

"I'm staying," I tell her. "I'm going to teach you a game. You do know what games are, yes?" I joke, smirking at her indignant little glare. A kitten with claws.

"Of course we play games!" Her tiny pink tongue stuck out to taunt me. Mmm, to taste it or better yet to feel that on any part of my body. I shook my head, lazy grinning as I stand the hoop up on its side with the footed stand, in the center of the stage. With my shoe, I kick the rubble clear but leave the debris in an oval shape equal distance on either side of the hoop.

"The goal is to run from your side of the field, from the line..." I point to where the rubble started on either side, "to the hoop." I adjusted it to make sure it snapped into the stand, the top of the curve reaching my lower belly. "Pass the ball through the hoop and if your opponent gets the ball, you try to stop them from doing the same. One ball in the hoop is one point."

She looked over the makeshift field, at the hoop and then at the round ball I had under my shoe. When she met my eyes, I smirked. In a swoop, I took my shirt off to show off a bit. We had to be similar ages but with my height and babyface, I have been stuck looking like a teenage boy for years. My muscles counteracted that assumption. I wanted her to see me this way.

Her eyes widened, light blue and innocent. She looked me over and with a flush, she avoided looking directly at me as much as possible. I thanked the gods she wore a dress but seeing her bewildered at my chest I expected her to use it as an excuse not to play. After about a hundred fast heartbeats from each of my hearts, she rose from the bleachers and walked around the playing field.

"Can we practice a few times, before we keep score?" Her delicate voice a balm and I nod, watching her body glide.

"On your feet," I tell her, and she drops from the air.

"You'll have me at a disadvantage." She admits and I grin.

"I'll have you however I can get you." Her flush across her creamy skin warms me and I vow to cut my speed down. Not just because it's her first game but so I could watch her move all the better. We align on opposite lines and I toss her the ball, over the hoop. She weighs it, shifting it from one hand to the other. She bends her knees as if trying to get a feel for the ground and then runs for it.

It's an obvious move and a few blinks after I decide my move, I execute, blocking her shot and snagging the ball.

She's unsteady on her feet, stepping back, startled I had managed to get in her path so quickly.

"Do you not walk?" I ask, "I guess if I had wings I wouldn't be on my feet much either."

"When we walk, we're mourning." She's watching the ball as she talks, attempting to keep in step with me. "To see an angel on their feet, it usually means their mind is deep in itself." I reach my line and turn back for the hoop.

I make my shot but she bravely goes for the ball, too slow. I snag the ball from the other side before it goes out of bounds, explaining a few more rules. When I sink the next two shots, she's getting the game. On my third run back to the loop, she puts her leg in my instep, our bare calves sliding against one another. She's so smooth, like silk and before I know it, she had the ball and ran for her line.

I needed to touch her again.

With quick moves she goes for the hoop, spinning a full circle to change direction when I attempt to block her. She bends, dipping low to shoot the ball through my legs and the hoop. I bit my lip, stopping the groan from escaping as I caught sight of the curve of her ass and a flash of her inner thigh. Elizabeth doesn't miss a step, bounding after the ball she just tossed.

"Nice panties." I tell her and her confident footing wavers. It's just enough time for me to snag the ball out from under her. I applaud myself. Elizabeth had the drive to prove herself. Initially, it came off as competitive but without the scoring, I could spot the differences. When she found a way to block me or predicted my next move her eyes would light up but when I made a score or stepped around her attempts, that same spark would be in them. She liked learning, playing, more than winning.

My genius even surprised myself as she slammed her back into my chest, touching me, without the intimidation factor. She'd flushed, her neck pinkening as her hair swayed, but with her focus on the game, she continued. I don't think either of us knew the score but after twenty minutes of us chasing, blocking and moving around each other's bodies, she was comfortable. It's what I wanted.

Her hips mirrored mine when I adjusted my stance, she lunged for balls still in my hands, jumped on my back once and even made a play for a shot by cozying her round ass against me. It was like a dream when she laughed, our knees touching thighs as we both had our hands gripping the ball, staring at one another.

With a kick off the ground, she launched up, taking the ball with her and spinning in the air over me to make her shot to bounce the ball through the hoop. I froze, gazing up her dress with her above me. To get my hands on that flesh... I'd do just about anything. She glides down, flushing but I drop to my knees for just another second of that glorious view. Her hands come down, clutched in front of her as if to hold her dress in place.

"I think pink is my new favorite color," I tell her, not even trying to hide my appreciation. A rustle to my left tells me the ball tumbled over the edge of our little island and she turns to look, frowning. She's closing up, her shoulders framing in and I step up to my feet.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," I tell her, running for the edge and jumping off. The clouds below us leave the ground below a mystery and I discovered it was raining a wet mist. We were above all this mess. The woodlands below us were dark but after a few looks around I find the ball, taking to the skies again to rejoin Elizabeth.

She was peering over the ledge and as I broke the clouds she smiled at me, unsure but happy. I reminded myself 'sheltered, seems to have never seen a mans chest before'. My hearts raced as I considered the possibilities of just how much I could show her. Everything would be new to her and her body...

"I'm sorry." She tells me, as I step up on the stage and shake out my wet hair. What? I try to figure out what she means, tilting my head to read her expression. "I didn't mean to... I shouldn't get that last point since I distracted you with my..." She trails off, looking away and a slow smile inches across my face.

"What was I distracted by?" I ask, feigning ignorance and she squirms so beautifully.

"My... uh... well my... intimates." I laugh at the absurdity.

"Say panties." I request and her shocked face meets mine. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth as if to physically stop herself but after a few wide-eyed blinks, she whispers it.

"Hm?" Teasing her made her eyes flash the goddess triscillian, before she meets me head on.

"Panties." She states, shoulders back in a bold, proud way. This is how she should always be. Unashamed.

"Hmmmm." I hum, lazy and happy as her blue eyes twinkle. If I could extend any moment of our time today it would have been this one and I found myself prolonging the gaze as I drop the ball to put my hands behind my head in an attempt to not intimidate her. "You learn quick." I praise her.

"You're a good teacher." She tucks her hair behind her ear, back to being shy. "That was the most fun I've had in such a long time." I want to ask her about the last time she had fun but I felt the air change, becoming heavier. She looks behind me and I turn, seeing the gray clouds rolling in. The drizzle evolving into a storm.

"Next meeting, I'll teach you to fight," I say, looking at the rolling puffs. Our bodies would be touching constantly then. I'd make sure of it. "Your stance is off and your balance-"

"No." She says, calm and tender.

"No?" I repeat. As demon prince, I didn't hear that often, I smiled in spite of myself. She would have no idea about that. Why did I like that?

"I don't want to hurt anyone." She confesses.

"Even if it's your life or theirs?" I ask.

"Even so." and I'm at a loss. How could you choose to die rather than hurt someone intent on hurting you? The word 'naive' floated across my mind and when I stared at the side of her face, she slowly turned to give me a sad smile. Her eyes didn't shine and I wanted them too... "It's going to storm. I need to fly back before it gets much worse." She admits, looking at the muted sun, covered by the clouds.

"Three days?" I ask, holding up my fingers and she mirrors the hand gesture. Her smile turns wry, eyes tipped as she kicks off into the air, over me. Looking down she does a pirouette, making the hem of her dress twirl out... giving me the gift of another look at her panties. She giggled, the first I'd heard from her and I wasn't sure which of the two bewildered me into senselessness. That musical, uplifting sound from her lips or the sight of her playfully flashing me her panties... on purpose.

Look at that... a goddess with a little, tiny, naughty streak.


	5. Start of a Divide

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Five: The Start of a Divide

Lady Graelle had assigned me as hostess today. My main job is to anticipate the needs of those in the lady chambers. We had a dozen visitors, all young men returned from the war looking for a woman to join with and start a family. The only time I came to these things is if I am assigned it and Lady Graelle made sure it was me and Jelamet. The two of us have been accountabilibuddies for years. That was our term, the true term is a companion, as leaving the compound as a single lady without one was frowned upon.

I looked over the room. We held socials a couple times a week so this room is set up with two-people tables, couches and occasionally activities if the hosts put something together. Today it was just snacks and I hid here behind the food table as the attendees glide around. I chose emerald green for our table cloths and Jelamet made flower arrangements for the centerpieces. We'd cleaned the night before but it hadn't taken much as per usual a social meant talking to one another. Not much to clean up from with that.

The ladies that lived here usually all attended and today is no different as the females outnumbered the available men. It seemed so easy for a guy to walk through and get the attention of the girl he picked from the bunch. Sheer boredom was my explanation to why anyone would agree to talk with the guys one-on-one. Jelamet's theory was 'freedom at any cost' and I always giggled when she would mock a bombshell big busted woman meeting with a frail, old widowed man.

Where I hadn't had any interest in men, Jelamet had another reason for disdaining the socials. Her heart was already taken. We paired well as escort-companions as we didn't bother with these events. Of course, her man was already paired and had a child but she insisted their love would always be. That she would stay a sister-in-waiting until it was his hand that asked for hers. She never shared too much about their relationship, but he did stop by Charity's Home to visit her.

That's where Jelamet spent her hours, helping the orphans of our clan. As her partner, I accompanied her most days but others joined for something to do from time to time. I always thought it weird that a married man would take his breaks to see her but they never touch so I figured she was his friend... that maybe he didn't know how she felt.

No one touched the tea cakes or drank our fruit water. I heard a man ask one of my fellow sisters-in-waiting if I had made the cakes. I had, and once the word spread, they avoided the snack table. Which made it a perfect place for me to stand while Jelamet thought it hilarious and went about asking each table if they wanted a plate brought to them. She enjoyed making me uncomfortable as inevitably, anyone asked would look at me for a quick glance before refusing her 'kind offer'.

Here, under Lady Graelle's watch, every man kept to their own side of the table. The women didn't approach, they were only to be asked to sit or to talk. Seeing it now, I flushed at just how inappropriate I had acted with Meliodas. I'd used my body to block his shots to the hoop during that game, against his bare chest. I burned hot as I thought of intentionally flying over him so he'd see my... panties.

The first time he'd spotted them, he'd fallen to his knees. In awe? I'd never brought a man to his knees before and I felt... something.

If that happened here I'd be on cleaning duty for months. Once, long ago, Ms. Mabel had grabbed a man's hand over the table and she's been assigned the prayer room ever since, fifty plus years of the duty. The angel man had chosen another goddess to pair with, one with propriety, they had warned. It was a cautionary tale as Ms. Mabel was a bitter elder who took reciting the prayers with a strict hand and often demanded recitations if even a word was off from the tradition phrases.

Most ladies here didn't want to risk their chance to get out from under the heavy thumb of the over-ladies. I abide by most rules, doing my duty and escorting with Jelamet wherever we went. Of course, I had my vices of sneaking out to the abandoned theater. Even before I knew Meliodas, it was my safe space. To get away from all the structure. All the expectations of being the daughter of the supreme deity. To be me and relax without any eyes following my every move.

"Are you hiding back there?" A deep man's voice asked, jolting me from my thoughts. He's tall, long hair that flows past his shoulders, a little scruff at his chin and silver gleaming armor with the triscillian on the center breastplate.

"Mael?" I asked, looking up at his tense face. He rarely relaxed as it was and going to a social like this, wasn't something he ever did. "What are you doing here?" He wasn't paired but he was like me, uninterested in playing at dating.

"Ludociel had some business with the High Priest." He explains, shrugging. "And... I heard you were chosen as one of the hosts this evening." Oh. He looks away, checking out the tea cakes and I flush.

"They aren't good," I whisper, but he picks one up. "I made them," I explain, hoping my warning was enough for him to skip the snack. He takes a bite and instantly grimaces.

"I, uh." He mutters, physically turning his face away from the offensive cake in his hand. He held it as far away as he could. "Maybe add sugar next time?" He suggests, putting the malformed square back on the table, but off the tray.

That's what I forgot? Hm. I hadn't been focused. My mind kept wandering back to Meliodas' lazy half grin with those devious glinting eyes. At this rate, my face would never cool.

"What... uh." I muttered, "What business did Ludociel have?" I try to change the subject as the silence grew uncomfortable between us and Mael seems relieved for the invitation to speak again.

"They are discussing opening the gates." Mael moves a step closer, walking, and out of respect I glide down to the floor. I barely came to his shoulder. Ice shivered down my spine, eyes wide as I comprehend what he just said.

"Opening the gates? To heaven? But the treaty-" I rush, hands coming up to my chest as if to protect myself.

He interrupts. "We have opened the gates before while not at war." His gaze is intense but cold. I have a bad feeling about this but I nod as if I believe him. The tension in the room fills and a few couples around us seem to pick it up as well, looking over at us.

A beautiful redhead with a curvy figure glides over. "Els." She says to acknowledge me. I smiled, grateful to her, leave it to my friend Jelamet to come to my rescue "We need to perform the closing ceremony." Both her hands already had the sage smudge sticks in them. I bowed my farewell to Mael and made my rounds with Jelamet to time out the tables.

With the sticks lit, we moved around the room and as the smoke wafted the guests said their goodbyes and the ladies returned to their rooms or left in pairs to other places. My mind wandered, trying to think of any other reason Ludociel would want the heaven's gate opened outside of gathering reinforcements? Or power.

I didn't ask anyone, as I didn't want them to know I knew and so many people have come up to me about the truce. Congratulating me as if I had swayed anyone in that decision. Of course, more people must have listened as I had been approached constantly whenever Jelamet and I went anywhere.

We closed the Lady Chamber doors and made our way out into the open cylinder room. We were over the worship chamber. "Want to make our rounds at Charity home?" Jelamet asked and I looked outside. It was almost midday, which meant she'd want to hurry to meet with her friend Davian. He was a Guard of the Wall, maybe he would know something about heaven's gate. I agreed, telling Jelamet about Mael and how, if it came up, maybe ask why the gate is being considered.

"Isn't all that over now?" Jelamet asked. We passed others as we glide down the big open main way of our utopian town. Shiny and white but nothing of note. No one or nothing stood out as different from everything and everyone else. It was nice in a monotonous way.

"I hope so. I'm worried. If you have a chance, just to confirm." I smile at her and I'm happy to see Jelamet smile back, agreeing to help ease my worries.

Without parents, in this realm anyway, I had grown up in Charity's home. We arrived at the block white building and when we stepped down to walk through the door we heard the children's laughter. They were overfull from the war, kids having to share four to a room and resources were low at the moment. Food wasn't a problem as we could grow anything from the seeds but without enough people to help out, it seemed a little chaotic at times.

The mistress on duty spotted Jelamet and sagged with relief. She begged for just twenty minutes of quiet.

"Of course, Ms. Emilee." I grip her hand in a sign of comfort and as she tearfully thanks me, she leaves the building. Oh, she left-left. The kids were rambunctious. Too much energy and I tried to think of something to entertain them for the next couple of minutes but everything seemed to have been attempted already. Coloring parchment is scattered. Game pieces had exploded and balls were flying.

"Yo, Jelamet!" The soft deep timber of Davian called out at the doorway.

With a sorry smile, she gave me a wave goodbye and left me with way too many children. Most were rushing me, excited for the new face and greeting me with long hugs and tugs at my hands to show me this and that. She abandoned me. The novelty of me being there wore off and the screams continued.

"Okay, everyone!" I shouted. That got the kids attention, as I never raise my voice. "Outside, to the courtyard." I lined the children up, tapping their heads with a smile as they went through the door to the open grass behind the home. I grabbed a ball from the chaos, a wooden hula hoop and asked the two oldest, they had started sprouting their wings just enough to be seen, to make a line with the chalk on either end of the field.

"We're going to learn a new game." I created an ark sword by channeling my divine energy into my arm. I didn't like to show it off, preferring others to assume I didn't know this skill. With oohs and ahs, I sliced the ground, shoving the hoop into the indentation. It wasn't perfect, but it would work. "We need two teams," I explained, dividing them up by size to make it even.

I taught them the same game that Meliodas had taught me. I only had to correct and teach a few times before the kids got it. The oldest two pit against one another is pretty funny and when they bumped one another they stopped, wide-eyed expecting me to reprimand the touch. I just smiled "Have fun!" I told them and with a little confusion, they continued the game.

Ms. Emilee returned, much more put together when she found us.

"Where's Jelamet?" She asked, but I called out a rule to avoid answering, acting as if I didn't hear when I asked how her break went. "Much needed, and you found something for them too... what are they doing?"

"It's a game, hoop-ball." I made up the name, flushing. "A friend of mine taught it to me."

"Friend?" Emilee asked and I smiled. She had dark black hair, cut short around her head. She was thin and very sharp. The perfect quick-witted, kind-hearted gem to run Charity's home. She'd volunteered when I'd lived here but hadn't been assigned home-mistress until after I'd moved to the Priestess temple.

"You don't know him," I tell, knowing it was too soon after the truce but feeling guilty. I wasn't ashamed of Meliodas. So I took a breath and said: "His name is Meliodas." There was no recognition on her mousy face and she smiled.

"A man friend?" She asked, just as Jelamet returned, flush in the face as if she'd run.

"Sounds like a fairy's name," Jelamet huffed, eyes frowning while her lips smiled. I know right away she was upset I hadn't told her first.

"I'll tell you all about him, later." I tilt my head to Emilee discreetly and that calms Jelamet's ire.

We don't stay much longer, Jelamet didn't even fill in our time sheet and I paused but didn't press her to write anything down. If she didn't want the record of being here, or the time added to her bank, it wasn't my business. An hour wasn't much but I still marked my time down, needing all I could get if I ever wanted any standing among our people.

"Davian doesn't think anyone is preparing to contact the Celestial Realm. They are bringing all the troops home. Why would they do that if they were preparing to get reinforcements or something? Training is still strict but it's an uneasy truce." Jelamet explains. Maybe the City Guard wouldn't need to know? Or, maybe it was nothing. The truce was in place, it was probably nothing.

I asked her what reason she thought the Archangels would want it open and Jelamet didn't even try to answer. "How should I know, but Ludociel is level-headed. Maybe he wants counsel." When we reached the Temple, Jelamet took my hand, guiding me up to her room.

Our rooms were in the same vein to the left in the open archway two stories up, but hers is close to the main cylindrical room. It was full of trinkets she'd been given but had the same basic bed, desk, and window as my own. All her little things reminded me of the demon coin. I had placed it on my window sill, my sole trinket. As soon as the door closed she grinned eagerly.

"Spill it, are you seeing a man too?" Too? As in she is seeing... Davian? My eyes widened. Did men take more than one lady on at a time? I flushed, a whole new set of thoughts and worries added to my limited knowledge of relationships.

"You're seeing a man?" I asked. Her eyes rolled and she pointedly ignored my question giving me a clear 'Tell me everything' glare. "Meliodas... he's a demon," I admit, at her shock and silence I cross my arms and raise my chin. Daring her to say a thing.

"No wonder you were so vocal about ending the war." She muttered, grinning in a way that made me think she had the wrong idea.

"We're just friends! And we met a few days before the truce even started so my activism had nothing to do with him." Although it did now because Meliodas was proof in my mind that Demons weren't evil. Ludociel was wrong, he wasn't freeing souls with each kill... he was murdering.

"Hmm." She tisked with her tongue. "So what all have you done together?" Jelamet crosses the room to sit on her bed, looking thrilled to be having this conversation.

"What do you mean?" I flush, realizing now just how disadvantaged I am. "Do you... have knowledge of this?" I whisper and her eyes twinkle, answering yes without a word to me. She was so pretty, did all her duties to the priestess temple, but once you were tested for purity at the beginning it was rare to ever be tested again while living here. "Teach me," I tell her, coming to sit beside her.

"Oh?" Her back goes straight. "Oh, you really are just friends?" Her lips pinch together and I can tell she's disappointed. "I thought I would finally have someone I could confide in about everything. I was excited it would with you..." She trails off. "Elizabeth, are you sure this demon is your friend? He could be using you or tricking you."

"For what?" I ask and she vaguely waves over my body. "But he hasn't even..." I flush, looking away. He's just seen my panties. "And what did you mean finally have someone to confide in?" I was expecting her to tell me but her face goes blank and she smiles sadly.

"It's nothing, Elizabeth. Be careful with your friend." She tells me, and I know I've been dismissed. Not one to overstay my welcome I sadly stand, feeling like something was suddenly between us.

"Please..." I tell her, but she just shakes her head.

"It's okay. You always cover for me, I won't blow your secret..." But she said it as if she wished she didn't have such a heavy burden. As if she genuinely worried about my safety with Meliodas.

If she knew him, it would be different. I make my way at a glide to my own room. Tomorrow is our rendezvous and I wanted to share something of my own culture with Meliodas. I didn't have much, so spent most of the evening thinking of what I could show him this time and of Jelamet's sad face when she realized I didn't have a secret boyfriend... like she did?


	6. Flowers

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Six: Flowers

I woke late, the sun already up but I snuggled into my covers. I still felt off after my talk with Jelamet, like our friendship hadn't lived up to her expectations. My clan felt that way about me and to have to add my best friend to the ranks of those that found me lacking, disappointing, I didn't like it. With the hints from last night, I could guess at her conundrum. Davian and her were doing things in secret. Under the nose of the Temple and Davian's mate.

Things that she thought I was doing behind the temples back too.

Davian had been gone for a time to fight in the battles, sent off occasionally, which would explain her support of me and my fight to stop the killings. It also explained why she always met him during his breaks when he guarded our city's wall and why I was always her cover. How many times had I waited for her to finish talking to him? I'd never seen them touch but I'd always been the face to the public.

Would that be how Meliodas and I were? Secretly meeting and pretending to the rest of the world we didn't know one another? I didn't want that... Most of the demon-hate came from goddesses who have never met a demon, let alone had a conversation with one. I decided then and there that I wouldn't give our meeting place away or how I met Meliodas but I wouldn't lie about being his friend.

Maybe that's how a change would start.

With a lighter heart, I decided not to judge. Perhaps Davian met Jelamet and fell in love after he'd coupled with his mate. That his contract with his lady would be up soon. It is their lives to live. I didn't like it, but I didn't want to lose a friend over it. Perhaps Davian and his lady had an agreement to raise their child before moving to separation? I dressed, concerned about my friend's heart and well being.

She thought my demon was tricking me but I had a heavy feeling thinking the same of her and Davian. Perhaps he was using her body the way she feared Meliodas would use mine.

I wore stretch pants under my hip length dress so I could fly easy, and not embarrass myself with any more panty escapades. Would Meliodas overlook me now, for my lack of propriety? I frowned, he was the one without it, he made me say panties! Dammit, why was it the woman's responsibility to stay pure and the men did as they pleased? I flushed, questioning the temples lessons for the thousandths time. Critically, I determined most of the rules and lessons were to control me and what I did.

Even the hoop-ball game I taught the children, they'd touched and expected reprimands.

With a quick wash to my face, I left my room and headed to the kitchens. Lady Graelle was there and I asked for a recipe, our Gaia bread. "Oh dear, I'm so glad you want to work on your cooking skills if you want to catch a man you have to-"

"No, I don't want to catch a man," I grumble but she's so excited as she hands me the recipe card and sets up the equipment I need I don't even think she hears me. I wanted to do this one right and I take my time, measuring and being careful. Lady Graelle stays to help until she's interrupted by Mael. Again? Coming to the temple this often? Was Ludociel here for the gate again?

Mael sees Lady Graelle first and I can tell he found who he was looking for but spots me. "You're... cooking?" He asks, looking wearily at the bowl I was stirring.

It did look dry compared to most batters I'd seen in the past. It was harder to mix but it smelled okay. So far. Lady Graelle had reassured me that bread did that, and once it rose it would fluff up.

"Don't worry," I tell him, smiling at his worried face. "It's not for you."

"Oh?" He asked, eyes cold and hard "Is it for Meliodas?" I freeze and Lady Graelle gives a yelp as if he said the devil's name himself. I don't reply just eye him. Jelamet swore she would keep my secret.

"How could Elizabeth have a run in with that... that... monster?" Lady Graelle came to my defense.

"He isn't a monster." I automatically defend him, causing Lady Graelle to deflate before me. "I met him that day on the battlefield," I tell them and Mael scowls, heavily. He immediately dismissed Lady Graelle and she rose up, chest out in frustration as her red face puffed. She cursed him for ordering her about and complained about how she had a firm hand on her house but had no respect from anyone. When her grumbles faded into the distance Mael stepped toward me in an attempt at intimidation, or I guessed it was. It only got my back up.

"And that game? Did you have time on the battlefield, between his killing blows against your people, to learn how to play?" I flushed, dropping my stirring spoon and squaring up as if I would fight but knowing I would never raise a hand to Mael. I would hold my own with words.

"How do you know about that?" I hissed, feeling my eyes prick as I imagined Jelamet's betrayal. She'd promised last night and I already had trouble...

"The children were playing it again this morning, calling it 'Meliodas' game' and when I asked, Emilee explained that you had been the one to teach them." Mael looked livid when I didn't deny any of his spoken and unspoken accusations. "That man is dangerous. You are forbidden to see him again."

"Forbidden?" I say, stunned. "You may have power over Lady Graelle, you may be an Archangel but I am not bound to you. By right of my birth, no one can forbid me." I obeyed most of the rules and listened to Lady Graelle as I did respect her for taking me in but Mael had no right and he knew it.

"I'll speak to Lady Graelle." Mael threatened and I laughed. He just walked all over her, if he asked her to do anything it would be an absolute no after that stunt he pulled a moment ago. He turns on his heels, slamming the door of the kitchen behind him and I calm my racing heart. Mael was in a very foul mood today but I felt my heart lighten. Jelamet hadn't been the one to tell, the kids had and kind of Emilee. She had no idea who Meliodas was, so would think nothing of it.

The bread needed time to rise and I flitted around to the garden, picking the flowers I needed. For traditional Gaia bread, I needed the freshly bloomed edible flowers. The cream sauce was most important, a glaze for the top of the bread with the flower heads decorating the top. The extra flowers were delicious dipped into the leftover glaze too.

A pair of sisters-in-waiting gliding around our gardens and they were talking about Mael, who had stormed out of her, not making any friends with his coldness.

"If he is ever coupled I will be blown from the sky in shock." One said and the other agreed, laughing. I frowned. He was intense but he had his good qualities too. Of course, I found this to be similar to myself. Neither of us cared about coupling. What was so great about forming your every action around attracting a mate? It should happen naturally, not because of some monitored nice words over a coffee table.

I thought of the Socials and frowned. Perhaps our society wasn't the greatest when it came to women and coupling. Why was it so emphasized? I frown, picking at the dirt beside a bush full of round fruit. Our berries were always in season but I bloomed my own seeds to ripen them to perfection before picking them. It was part of the final presentation and made the bowl of Gaia authentic.

When I returned to the kitchen with my finds, I was alone. With fire in our stove I put the dough in, it had fluffed while I'd been picking the toppings. I made the cream glaze myself without Lady Graelle's help but with careful reading. To help my cause I packed two separate parcels. One for Meliodas and one for Lady Graelle. With the sweet cream, flowers, and berries over top the slices of heavy bread, it looked good at least.

I did cut away the burnt bottom but it would be fine...

Lady Graelle was in her study, hair limply falling down around her wide face and I frowned at the red around her eyes. She smiled at me kindly when she spotted my offering. "Thanks, for all your guidance. Today and always." I say, soft and kind. I felt for this woman, having to deal with the Archangels and Mael while he had been in such a bad mood. She stood when I came into her study.

"You're blooming... Appreciating your heritage." Lady Graelle says, accepting the bowl with a watery smile. "Thank you, Elizabeth." She dismisses me, kindly kissing me on my forehead with an 'I bless you, Elizabeth'. From her, warm health spreads through me. As I leave I start feeling guilty that I'm sneaking out after she obviously didn't give in to Mael's demands. She hadn't forbidden me from anything.

In the sky, I take a longer way. I fly as if I'm just on a little stroll through the clouds and when I'm sure I snuck past the barrier of our clan I head toward the theater. I can feel him there before I even see the crumbling island. It wasn't his demon energy, so what was it? Slowing, I tuck my package behind my back and touch down close to him.

He had red on today, a long sleeveless vest that went over his hips. His pants were black and dipped into his pointed shoes with the high flaring tops. I spotted his blade, already removed but resting one block up from his selected seat. He must have chosen randomly as he was sprawled out on the far left nearer to the top of the viewing area.

When he smiles at me, I sag into a sitting position near him, letting the wrapped package stay behind me.

"I missed you," I tell him, not consciously deciding to say it. He looks surprised but pleased and I feel myself grow warm. So much so that I can't look at him a moment longer or I'd start steaming, so I turn to look at the clouds all around us. "Sorry..." I mutter. "I mean, I just thought of you while you were away." I steal a glance and he moves his palm down his torso again.

"I thought of you, too." He admits, smiling at the clouds and I find myself gripping my knees so I relax my hold. I need a moment. I have waited three days to see him and I've seized up already. Was he being polite, or had he really thought of me too? He did show up again. Silence spreads comfortably between us and I find myself thinking, this is nice.

"I found something out about you," Meliodas says, his voice light and peaceful. "Among the troops, you are called 'the bountiful beauty'. A bit of a folktale." I flush, the demons knew of me? Gave me a nickname? Why? He doesn't seem to be joking, relaxed as he stares back into me. "Of course, I couldn't agree more- Bountiful does almost do all this justice." He brazenly looks me up and down, his hand dangling from the ledge his elbow rested on gestures to my body.

Oh. Did he think I am... pretty then? Was I known for that? I frowned a little. Confused. I didn't want to be known for my looks but I was pleased that Meliodas found me to be so.

"It's from the survivors you revived." He continues and I think of the black haired man. Now that I've spent more time with Meliodas I could pick up more distinct differences between him and that relative. Meliodas had wider eyes and jaw but still looked remarkably similar.

"From... your brother?" I asked, my question encompassing two things I wanted to know.

"My brother?" He asks, his elbows dropping from the ledge behind him as he sits up, angling closer to me. My question peaked his interest.

"I'm not sure if he was. He looked like you, but his hair was black. He was there when we first met." He connects the dots, eyes shining. Meliodas had a quick mind.

"You healed him that day, didn't you. That sly bastard." He mutters, rambling off and rubbing his face in a frustrated way. "Was he bad off?"

"Yeah," I confess and Meliodas smiles sadly at me.

"I doubt Zeldris thanked you so... Thank you." He tells me and I smile, shrugging as I tilt my head to try and match his expression to something I could identify. I'm usually good at reading people but he seemed to be in a mix of a few things. I wouldn't tell on his brother for knocking me out. He had spared my life, I guessed that was basically a thank you. "You healing all those demons made you a legend. There are even songs of you, the graceful ghost that glows life into the fallen."

Ghost? I guess I did float over them, using my aura and my magic did glow...

"Hm, did you bring me something?" Meliodas asks, looking around me and I turn to look too, I had forgotten.

"Oh... I don't-" He snags it, his hand feeling along my backside with his quick swipe, seemingly to have innocently grazed my behind as he acquired the box. I freeze, absorbing the sensation with a hot face. Oh. Was that... an accident? I watched him as he pried the first fold open to the box. "You shared something of your clan, so I thought I would share with you." I flush as he goes wide-eyed looking into the box.

"Fresh berries?" He pulls one out and pops one in his mouth, groaning.

"I'm not a very good cook but-" I don't even have time to finish as he's scarfing down the fruit and sweet bread.

"Yeah, it wasn't very good." He admits, grinning so fully that I flush. Was that a compliment because his words didn't match his expression? "Thank you! I haven't had fruit or grains in a long while." I want to ask why but when he puts the box down I notice the flowers are all still there.

"Oh, you're supposed to..." I trail off, the extra glaze was untouched too so I grab a flower, dip it and pop it in my mouth. He watches me. "The flowers are part of the Gaia." I tell him, choking on my own glaze. Why was it salty? "Nevermind, don't eat that part."

"You eat flowers?" He asks, taking one from the box and dipping it as I had.

"Yeah, but don't- the glaze." I try to grab it from his hand but he pops it in his mouth just as I had. He chews, seeming deep in thought before he swallows.

"It's still bad. The bread was fine and the fruit was amazing but the sauce covering everything- not good." He takes another flower, dipping it and eating it. "But since you made it for me, I will enjoy every bite." I laugh, taking the box from him to stop him from torturing himself.

"Hey!" He exclaims and I dodge his grabs. I shot up, making a run for it but Meliodas was fast, catching me by the waist and taking me down with a roll. He took the force of the fall and I sprawled on top of him.

"Oh!"

My legs were on either side of his hips and my breasts pressed to the side of his shoulder. He moved his face to rub against them and I squeaked, sitting up. Which didn't make the situation any better as I was atop him. I am only to be atop my coupled mate. With my wings I take to the sky, hovering over him as he lays there with a happy, satisfied smile.

That's when I see what his hands are doing. He had another flower, dipped and all, that he placed on his tongue. I flushed, watching him lap at the flower and I didn't know why I felt warm in my stomach all of a sudden. From laying on him? Our hips making contact? His tongue?

How had he gotten the box from me?

"Were you hurt?" He inquires, looking me over as I stepped down beside his hip. Whatever he saw as he looked over my body made his smirk deepen and my warm tummy twirled in a new rush of feelings. What had he done to me? Was this some kind of demon magic? I stepped back. He hadn't released any, I would have noticed right?!

His eyes had stayed green but as I looked him over, laying where we fell, I felt it again. A need of some kind. I wanted something...

Meliodas sat up, concerned as he looked around us. "Do you sense something?" He asked, and I look around, confused. No, I shook my head to indicate. "Why are you panicking?" He questions, gazing up at me from the floor. Our positions made me feel in control and after a steady breath, I tried to explain.

"I felt... warm," I tell him, touching my lower tummy and flushing for some reason. "I've never..." What would you call this? Tingling in my core? "Oh!" I grew mortified as I remembered what that 'coming of age' book had explained about desire. I flushed even deeper, my hands rushing to my face as I see Meliodas had his head down, hair over his shadowed face but his fists were clenched. I watched them loosen as he faded into the easy, molten emerald eyed man I'd come to know these last few visits.

"So-" He starts, that devious look back on his face "You felt warm, A rush of sensation?" He stood and even being a bit shorter than me I felt intimidated, all the control shifting to him in a blink.

I feel out of my depth and lost at sea. If he reached for me would I melt or make an attempt to fly an escape? I'd decide when it happened. His voice calms me and enlivens me in another way.

"If you knew what I felt, you wouldn't be so embarrassed about it. It's natural to want, to have an interest in another like this."

I found myself shaking my head negatively in denial but slowly his words sank in and my head stopped moving. Judging from Jelamet's talk yesterday, with her hints at seeing Davian... Is this feeling what she had been talking about? Lust? We've been taught to repress this feeling, to push it away and I'd done so well I didn't recognize it when it popped up at first. Jelamet was alone, having a desire in a world where having any was reprehensible. Any expressed individuality is stamped out. Was she wrong? Not for her feelings, but for being with a taken man, yes. I don't know! But I thought it worse that she didn't have a friend in the world that she could relate to.

Until now.

"My people... we don't talk like this. You are so bold and I'm used to formality." Stifling formality. Meliodas accepts this, eating another of my salty glaze flowers. He seemed to be relishing in them as if it were the best thing he's experienced when I knew them not to be.

"You don't like where you are." He states, not a question but I smile sadly. I have noticed some things about my life that I didn't agree with fully, or at all.

"It's fine," I remark blandly, it had to be. I didn't have any other options. I could pair with someone, but then they would get to decide what happened to me. At the temple, it was my own choices limited only by the headmistress, Lady Graelle. She was very easy on me, she told me once it's because she knew what it was like to grow up without any family. I grow morose and fold down on the stone floor, legs crossed as I honestly answer. "I want... to be free."

It's a plea, to the universe I guess and I close my eyes as if that will hold me together. When I open them again, he's cross-legged too, sitting in front of me. He smiled encouragingly when I met his darkened eyes.

"You're not free?" He asked when I didn't elaborate he asked another question. "What do you want?"

"I want to see something other than battlefields and the goddess strongholds, I'm not even permitted in the Forest." There was silence for a long time, him looking over me and I at him. I could claim my standing, but I needed to be of age which meant I had to be finished with my fevers, and the councils blessing.

Would he be upset to learn I lived in a temple that was basically a stepping stone to being coupled? All the single ladies just waiting for a man. I scowled at my own thoughts and his eyebrow raised on his left side. I wasn't waiting for a man, I refused. To shift the attention from me I ask him, "Are you happy? Do you want anything?"

"Yeah, I do." His smile is irresistible and I find myself smiling back. He didn't elaborate and I didn't push him as he ate another of the flowers from the box looking into me.


	7. In the Shadows

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Seven: In the Shadows

Jelamet and I had broken through our first friendship barrier. We were heading to Charity's home to brainstorm with Emilee and I was grateful to have my friend in a happier place. I'd explained that I felt desire too and that I didn't think the boxes this society put us in did women justice. Our options in life were limited.

Our plans? To expand a woman's options to anything a man could do. Not surprisingly, many of the ladies we spoke to supported our ideas.

We wanted to be able to have our own homes if we wanted to live alone. To farm, or be a council member or even join the army if we wanted. Together we had made a formal request to express our want to the council and Lady Graelle sponsored us. She let us do the heavy lifting but told us, on our own that there was a reason she chose to be headmistress rather than take any hand offered her. She humbly told us 'there had been many offers in my prime'.

Naturally, there were those who opposed. A few from the women in our hall of the Temple. "From one extreme to the next, huh Elizabeth?" A goddess said, having been against my opposition to the war as well. Her long blonde hair flipping in my face as she passed. "Just love the attention. It's not enough to draw every eye as you glide by?" I flushed as the friend she was with laughed.

I didn't tell Jelamet, but I told Meliodas when I had seen him next. He told me "It's all your soft curves, no matter how much I look I can't seem to stop." I had been embarrassed at the compliment, having always thought being born of the Supreme Deity had been what drew others eyes to me.

We had played another game of hoop ball and he joked about making it a strip game. I had almost caught fire when he explained if he made a point then I had to take off a piece of my clothing, and the same for him if I made a point. We didn't, at my refusal, but he had taken my hand.

He had no idea what that meant and I shook.

I explained that holding hands, to the goddess clan was a sign of 'intention' and he made me explain what 'intentions' were exactly. I told him 'coupling' and he laughed as he got me to start fumbling through an explanation of laying together before I ended his games of embarrassing me. I had the feeling Demons didn't give many qualms about sharing their bodies with one another and I silently wondered how many had known Meliodas' body.

"Are you even listening, Elizabeth?' Jelamet was flying backward, waving her hands in front of my face. "The Fairies are here!" I turned to where she was pointing and I spotted Gloxinia. Jelamet waved me off. "I'll just meet you there, you'll be fine for the next block or so."

"Or you spotted Davian over there," I tell her, pointing to the man flying up ahead. She had the decency to give me a small shrug. I had been honest, that I didn't agree with her being a side-woman but that her feelings were valid. She deserved to be the main focus. Jelamet flew off after her taken man as Gloxinia spotted me.

We'd met months ago when he'd come to ally with us in the war. Our entire clan's forces had been positioned closer to the fairy's forest for max protection and word is our military main-base is there. Our alliance guaranteed the other clan would defend each other in an attack.

We touched shoulders, a common greeting amongst both our kind.

"You look well." He noted and I spoke a small greeting back, asking after his sister. After a few noted updated in our lives, we glided together with Gloxinia leading.

"What's going on?" I asked after we caught up. The other fairies had gone into the Archangel compound and I started to feel anxious again. The truce had held for over two and a half months. Meliodas and I had met every three days and I feared a spark in the fights for more reasons than I had before. He'd be drawn into the fights and I'd be uselessly spreading my views. We wouldn't see each other anymore. We'd be enemies again just for what we were.

"We don't know yet, it's the goddesses that requested us. Probably defense again." He explains. "You really influenced the council." Gloxinia says, smiling at me as I give a start. "The truce happened with a majority vote with your name being passed around like a prayer."

My useless views had... influence? Wow. I shot a few feet higher before I grew hot and lowered back to Gloxinia's level. "Thank you, Fairy King." We part, and I smile at his beautiful butterfly winged back. I had helped stop the killings. Being the daughter of the Supreme Goddess did have some pull, after all...

My curiosity about the meeting burned but I let it go, knowing I couldn't overhear without being noticed. Meliodas had never asked me anything about what the Goddess clans were doing but... what if this meant something, or maybe he knew something? He is an important fighter, one of their strongest to take on Ludociel.

Butterflies fluttered while thinking of seeing Meliodas tonight. The winged beasts moving inside me started a few visits back. We'd hugged, his head near my neck and he smelled so nice that my tummy released the flapping, tingling beasts. Now they activated whenever he smiled or when I thought of meeting him alone.

Outside of Charity's Home, I waited for Jelamet and it was another couple of minutes before she showed. Late for her assigned task, we stayed longer to compensate, which set my whole day back. We were in charge of our evening meal and I set up, prepped and cleaned while Jelamet cooked. No one ate if I did any of the ingredient mixings. With Meliodas love of fruit, I'd been taking a pouch of them each time for him to enjoy. After eating with all the sisters-in-waiting, Lady Grealle kept us late to prep for our council meeting which meant it was already dark when I set out for the theater.

It was always late evening when we met but I fret at the thought of him waiting or worrying... Or worse yet, giving up on seeing me today. In the dark, I snuck from the worship room, out the back through the gardens. With quick feet, I kept to the ground as Goddesses usually watched the skies. The guards were at the wall but I could wiggle out in the gap between the two in the southwest corner behind the elders center.

My path to meet Meliodas was halted as I went around the Archangel compound and the back door opened. My heart dropped. I am so busted. "Thank you for your help." Ludociel's voice carried softly in the dark as a figure stepped out the door. It was a man, and he didn't say anything in response but slipped into the shadows. Ludociel returned inside, so I watched the man go. I only felt comfortable moving again after a few deep breaths with the world around being still.

I thought I was the only one to know of this small flaw in the wall. Being at ground level and all, but there, the shadowed man went. Parallel to my own path, I watched him head to my gap in the wall. I crept closer, curious that I couldn't pinpoint his race. He didn't have wings, but he didn't have a demon aura. He wasn't flying so wasn't a fairy and obviously, he wasn't a giant.

Human? At this speed though? It would have to be one with abilities.

With a quick glance around I noted we were alone, both hiding from sight and trying to get out of here unnoticed. When I looked back at the man, he was gone. Behind this tree, I had a straight shot to the gap but something told me to be still. Instinct raised the hair on the back of my neck and I realized... I'm in danger.

My first thought was 'get to Meliodas', but that meant risking the open gardens to the gap. With a deep breath, I book it, using my wings to propel me forward as fast as I could. I skid into the gap, pushing out to fly into the open space. Yes! In the air I look back and not a foot behind me the dark man is there, reaching for me.

"You must die." The man hisses, malice in his voice.

No!

A handful of my hair is pulled out, the silver threads blowing in the wind as he kicks down in the same motion, making contact with the back of my head and I plummet. Vaguely I spotted soundless little bells sewn into the shoe he'd slammed into me. The force behind his attack pushed me, my wings uselessly flailing on either side of my limp arms.

My brain reconnects and I shake myself into action.

Going on instinct I take off in a horizontal spin, steadying my descent to dip into the tree line, hitting some branches in a scratching and bludgeoning tangle of limbs. I slow before finding a rhythm and fly parallel to the ground, just over the trees. My right-wing burned but I pushed through, hoping it wouldn't snap if I ignored its protests, knowing I couldn't keep this pace up. The man hit the ground, a thud echoing behind me but I didn't stop.

Meliodas could do anything. He came out of his battle with Ludociel, he had boundless power. I'd felt it, but a part of me wondered- could I put him in danger?

Escape. That's plan A, the goal is reaching the theater. Even if Meliodas had given up on me showing up, I could heal there and take to the highest skies until my attacker gives up.

"Little birdie!" The man's malice voice called out and startled, I weave to avoid a clean shot. How had he gotten so close to me? I started climbing higher, intent to shoot straight up when a beam of energy shot from his direction, clipping my hip. I changed trajectories, ignoring my wings pain and cursing not having a moment to heal it. If it snapped it would take me even longer but with this mans speed I'd be dead even if I slowed a blink. I added fight back to my escape plan.

I flew an ark toward him, knowing he wouldn't be in the same spot for long but wanting him to know I am not a powerless goddess. He laughed, far off from my projected hit, so I threw another, climbing higher. The skies were clear, the stars sparkling but the moon is new, so the darkness paired with no place to hide up above both worked in his favor.

Another dark beam came from the tree line and I fired an Ark back while dodging the attack. Too close. My dress split across my stomach as I turned to miss the energy. I dropped, touching down to the ground to kick off, sending an ark under my feet to blast me up as I push my wings hard to go high. The darkness would hide me if I could get high enough and the Theater would be in sight.

It worked, I shot up, the air thinning and my wing protesting with every heavy pull. With my safe destination in view, I made a line towards it, the island growing as I approached. The man is unable to fly. How had he made it to the Archangel compound? Why would they even meet there? Wouldn't it be a thousand times easier for Ludociel to meet the shadow man in the woods?

Oh... Meliodas.

I felt his energy just as another energy signature registered, the black beam shot towards me. My mind knew what to do but my failing, damaged wing fumbled, fluttering as I mostly dodged the blast. I heard the snap echo in the silent air around me before the pain registered. A scream wrenched from my throat. No! My flight stuttered and I fought my fall in a slow arc, descending. My remaining wings were out of sync without my fourth, I even uselessly used my hands as if they could slow gravity's pull.

I looked toward the theater, feeling behind my back to try and lay my hands on the break. If I could mend it just enough to stop my fall- or make it to Meliodas. Another beam shot out, it would be a direct hit and I braced for impact, spotting a black blur intercepting the magic and firing it back in one quick motion. The beam impacted the earth, debris flying around and trees soared through the air.

A demon.

I could feel the energy flowing from them and just as I healed the snap in my wing but not the tear, I flapped hard to halt my fall. It threw off my fall and the demon missed me by an inch as I flipped in my chaotic momentum. At this point, I just needed to prevent impact. Wings wide and strained I came in too hot and held my hands up to brace myself for another tumble through the tree limbs.

A warm blur hit my side, arms wrapping around my waist and pulling me up before the tree line, but instead of slowing me down, the demon is sucked into the velocity with me. Warm velvet tendrils of darkness danced before my eyes and I realized with a shot of adrenaline, Meliodas. Of course.

The demon I avoided wasn't attacking... but trying to catch me! He adjusted his hold, and I did too, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my cheek to his. I widened my wings to mirror his, adding resistance as we slowed to a stop gliding in the air. He... came for me?

I don't know what came over me. The near-death experience, realizing I could rely on Meliodas or that he had been my first thought when my instinct alerted me to the danger. I pulled away, hands on his shoulder as I looked at his face eye to eye. His demon essence was leaking out around him, his collar wavey black energy and the mark on his forehead contrasted with his skin... but the butterfly bloomed in a chaotic rhythm as my desire pooled in a warm rush.

Kiss him.

Flushing, but before I lost my nerve I slowly leaned in, touching my lips ever so slightly against his tense ones. His black eyes blinked and there was the green again. Just like that. I pulled back, removing my hands back from his shoulders but I find resistance with my right hand. His velvet demon tendrils had wrapped around the fingers of my right hand and kept them hovering over his bare shoulder. I wiggled my fingers among the power there and giggled as it tickled up my palm reminding me of a smooth, fluffy... lick?

"Again " Meliodas demands at a whisper and I burn under his consuming gaze. His hands at my hips move, his thumb finding the tear in my dress to feel a small circle of my bare flesh and I can't seem to help myself. I let my fingers among his darkness fall back against the bare part of his shoulder but reach for his face with my other. With a tender graze of his cheek, I weave my digits in his messy hair and we meet halfway.

The butterflies return but Meliodas responds this time and with his soft little movement against my lips I can't help but close my eyes to the sensation. A soft hum from my throat sounds as my desire reaches a new level. His hand not making direct skin contact comes up to my neck while pulling me closer to feel his full body against mine. Its too much to take, too many sensations awoke in me at once.

Like a lightning bolt right to the core, I arched into him without consciously deciding to. His hand at my neck folds into my hair, slow and soft. Just as he rotated his lips against me, his nose brushing mine ever so gently. His fingers in my hair make contact with the wound that shadow man's kick had delivered and I flinched. He pulled away, seeming to realize where we were and why we were floating over the leaves under our crumbling island. Instead of going up, which is what I would have chosen, he guides us down taking my hand.

"Why was a vampire attacking you?" He inquires, seeming to be somewhere else as he studied his surroundings.

"He was leaving the Archangels compound as I was coming to you..." I whisper, suddenly scared. A vampire? It was darker under the canopy of the trees. The skies were safer for me. Meliodas checked me over, touching the tear in my dress and moving to look at the back of my head. I couldn't see the details of his face but his shoulders were tense. Were we still in danger. "I'm sorry," I tell him, tears welling in a rush as I realized what I brought down on him. "I thought maybe you wouldn't be here since it took me longer but I shouldn't have taken the risk of-"

"No. You come to me." Meliodas states, firm. "I'll fight with you." My heart races.

"He had dark hair, long. His shoes had tiny ornamental bells that didn't ting." I tell him. "Something is going on with the Archangels. I don't think the truce is..." I flush as Meliodas freezes, taking my hand again to stop what I was saying as he finished looking over my injuries.

"You don't have to." He tells me, "I don't want you to think I'm with you so you'll betray your people's secrets." The thought hadn't crossed my mind but the tears I held back broke free from the dam and streamed down my face.

"The fairies came today for a meeting and Loduciel is trying to gain access to Heaven's gate. So far, unsuccessfully." I took a breath, my own hand finding his other rough palm to slip my own against his. "The council is on my side, but he's trying something. Even this... vampire... He was meeting Ludociel, I saw them together." I tried to stop the tears but didn't fight their fall. My voice was heavy with emotion as I let out a sob "If the fighting starts again there will be so much death and the war will break what we've started between us."

He let go of me. I'm blind from my tears and in the dark I brought my empty hands to my chest trying to curb my sudden feeling of vulnerability. His rough palms cupped my cheeks as he guided my face down to touch his forehead to mine.

"Listen to me, Elizabeth." He is so calm, steadying me as if up to this point I'd been on a wobbly peg and just now stepped up to a solid platform. "I'll start negotiations to evolve the truce to a treaty, I'll do everything in my power to prevent our clans from ever being enemies again. I promise you." I let out a strangled breathy sob.

"How?" I ask, my hands found his chest and gripped his shirt.

"I have a few cards still to play." I can hear his grin from the tone of his voice and smile in spite of myself. "So no more tears." He chides, his thumbs and fingers swiping them away, but resting along my jawline on either side.

"Then I'll get closer to Ludociel." I vow, "I'll find out anything I can to help you- but please, everything I give you... use it to end the war." I step closer, our breath mingling as I breathily say, as if a prayer "I trust you, Meliodas."

This time, he kisses me and I knew... there was no going back. We'd crossed the threshold, greedy to keep one another.


	8. A Prince

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Eight: A Prince

Every commander and adviser thought this move was reckless. Zeldris and I, both heirs to the throne going into enemy territory. Cusack and Chandler refused the idea straight off until I informed them they would be accompanying us. Not allowed in the meeting but able to move around the compound while not being observed.

Having the four strongest demons together eased most of the Commandments concerns.

Along with the other clans, each having two representatives present with their own guards brought the chances of any backstabbing down to almost nil. Every clan had agreed, eager to keep this truce and end the holy war.

For added measure I had sent Zeldris to the vampire clan, to further involve them in our alliance and guarantee they were present in our treaty talks. It is an olive branch, but after that attack on Elizabeth, I knew there were traitors among our allies or the vampires themselves didn't know someone was informing to the archangels.

Of course, if given the chance I will decapitate the vampire that shot my lady out of the skies. The sound of her wing snapping followed by her scream wrenching through the night had chilled me. I've heard all manners of screams in my life, but that one, it still echoed in my head when it was silent. My demon and I were immediately in accord. We worked in tandem, even her sweet, innocent kisses, my demon had wanted them. It had been strange, not resisting the dark me's desires. Warring with myself had become second nature but with Elizabeth... There was peace inside me.

I didn't know what the vampire looked like outside of Elizabeth's description but I had felt his energy when I countered it. If I found a hint of that same magic paired with silent bell-adored shoes I would find a way to make him pay. Of course, the two of us had another problem if that vampire reported who it was that saved my goddess.

This secret relationship thing wouldn't do for much longer. She'd be safer if everyone knew just whose wrath they would incur if harm came to her. But she would be known. More enemies didn't phase me but if they went after Elizabeth... My demon rose up, just at the thought. I hadn't told my clan or my fellow Commandments but Zeldris knew. From his own deductions, and without my denial he simply gave me long, exasperated looks when ladies or fucking came up in conversation while I was around.

The quartet of us approached the floating city of the goddess clan. I'd never been, obviously. I was curious just how Elizabeth lived. Too bad we were on high alert or I would take in the scenes more as I flew up to the closed gates of the massive platform in the clouds. A wall surrounded the city, blocking off the view of the inside but my eye was drawn to the two huge statues with massive busts, their giant stone hands on the gate on either side, looking as if they were playing the gate like a harp. Both of the goddess statues had their faces to the skies.

We touched down outside the gates, four fairies were there waiting. Three females and a male. They stepped closer to the gate but I made no move toward them. The vampires would be at half power during the day and I wondered after them since they hadn't appeared yet. I heard flapping from below and with a bored look, turned to watch what was going on down there. About twelve goddesses had a platform with eight people standing on it, each Angel had a chain they were holding to bring the humans and vampires to the floating city.

The humans and vampires were opposite one another and the goddesses on the vampires side struggled harder from the weight. Elizabeth wouldn't be among them and I lost interest quick enough. At least each clan has held to their agreements.

"If the Goddesses make this into a ceremony to stroke their own dicks I'm leaving," Zeldris quips loudly and I hear the male fairy snort a laugh from behind me. I grin, thinking that perhaps this truce really could work. I had to give it my best effort. With all our demon power evoked, the four of us looked more ominous than any of the other clans. My darkness flickered around me as the gates opened.

The whole city was white with flowers framing the pathway for us to walk. The Goddesses that had heaved the human and vampire clan up, lead the way with a flying show overhead in a criss-cross pattern with loops. I refused to watch, looking at the gathered spectators. Goddess and angels of all ages looking on with hope and fear from a distance away from our path to the Compound.

"Have they heard of colors?" Zeldris asks, looking at the block and uniform buildings that looked like the same place had been built over and over in the same ticky-tack fashion. Creativity wasn't a goddess trait, apparently. Of course, they did have colors but thinking back, all the flashes of Elizabeth's panties had all been pastel. Perhaps they didn't have bright colors?

Waiting ahead, at the Archangel compound we'd heard about, were the four of them, standing at the top of the stairs. No doubt to physically look down on the rest of us. Zeldris gave me a side glance, already done with this bullshit as we started our climb up the steps. That's when all the colors in this city sprung free with one voice.

"Meliodas?!" She was surprised, I could hear it in her tone. I turned watching her rush around the other goddesses to reach me. I stopped, the other of my clan continuing a few stairs up in front of me but then pausing to wait. When she reached the flower barrier of our path, I expected her to stop but she paid it no mind. Coming for me just like she did at the theater.

My heart swelled as, with no fear, she touched down before me and wrapped her lithe arms around my neck. She smelled like sweet sage and peace as I wrapped my arms around her waist. I tucked my nose into her hair. Too soon, she pulled away, her hands clasped at her chest and I heard the others of her people gasping and whispering. "Are you escorting the demon representatives?" She asks sweetly.

"No," I tell her, and her eye wanders down the opening of my black vest, flushing at the sight of my bare chest. I wore it to shock the prude eyes that followed us but I appreciated my choice all the more with Elizabeth's reaction. "Don't be shy, touch me." I take her hand and place it on my bare chest, enjoying her soft palms on my hard flesh.

Oh... how she would look with her hands wrapped around my other hard flesh.

With my hearts racing one another I vibrated on the inside and with her palm right there, I think she noticed. Her eyes were vibrant blue today, wide and innocent as she smiles softly, pulling away with a light trace of her fingertips seeming to prolong the touch?

"I thought you would hide our relationship," I tell her, looking around at all the gaping faces.

"Why would I?" She asked, genuinely confused as between her brow the tiny confusion wrinkle appears. My chest grew warm. "Even the archangels know we are friends." My smile spreads just as the darker bits of my demon fade. Huh. I'd hidden our relationship... from shame or protecting us? Not Elizabeth though, she'd been... proud? Strong in the face of opposition.

"Meliodas." My brother hisses and I waved them on, looking over at the demons shocked faces.

"Make them wait," I retort. I thought it would piss Zeldris off but he grinned smoothly. Cusack didn't seem to care, following Zeldris but Chandler held firm.

"Master, if I may advise-" The old man started and I feel my demon fire up, my darkness going from a low simmer to a flame. Chandler bows and turns his back to us.

"Master?" Elizabeth asks, looking between the two of us. I see the gears click in her brain as her eyes alight with understanding. "Meliodas are you... The demon king's son?" She's surprised and I give a small nod. Would she treat me differently? Most were terrified of me. Her shoulders sag in some kind of relief?

"Oh." She sighs, wings fluttering prettily behind her. "That makes it much easier to tell you-"

"Lady Elizabeth!" A commandeering harsh voice reprimanded. "You are interfering with the progression of our welcome ceremony. For the treaty. One you have persistently swayed our people to agree too. Attend to your duties." Ludociel looked so fiercely at her I found myself stepping between them while Elizabeth slowly went from relaxed to horrified. No doubt at herself. What a load of shit.

"No sweat, Ludo." I quipped to the big Archangel, reaching around Elizabeth to place my hand on the swell of her plump behind. She yelped, her face growing red. I refused to look away from her as I addressed Loduciel. My chest expanding from feeling her so supple in my grasp "This is our welcome ceremony. Established long ago. Right, Elizabeth?" With a solid handful of round, perfect flesh I used my other hand to motion Loduciel to lead the way.

As I detached myself from Elizabeth, I winked at her, stepping up the stairs after the Archangel but not looking away.

"I'll bring you lunch!" She calls up to me, waving as I reach the platform and she disappears from my view. My darkness rises in ire as I'm lead into the Archangels compound. It's overdone, white marble floors and a massive painting of themselves on the walls in heroic poses. The round dome overhead was glass, showing the sky above. A fountain with Goddess women dripping wet from the spray made me think of swimming with Elizabeth. To see her clothes so tight against her curvy body.

The others of the clans were waiting before double doors. The elaborate winding gold leaves made up the frame with two long poles bolted to the inside to act as handles.

"Now that everyone has arrived, let's begin." Ludociel gave me a quick frown and took the lead. Inside, a roundtable with an open center greeted us. The angels on either side of the door started playing harps and I heard Zeldris scoff as we pass.

Our seats were assigned, Chandler and Cusack had to stand. Each two representatives took their chairs and had another two at their backs. Much to Zeldris' disdain, the meeting started with a ceremony with the four Archangels. I nudged Zeldris as the Fairy, the nameplate 'Fairy King Gloxinia' indicated who he was, grinned in our direction. Perhaps we would make allies here after all.

The Giants were unable to fit but had waived their participation from the start. Fighting is their life but they didn't oppose an end to the holy war.

Over time, the days ran together. Every other day the clans met. Elizabeth would greet me when I first arrived (to be groped publicly and thoroughly). She brought me food at our midday break, usually stuff she didn't make but I could always tell when she'd made it herself. Not from the strange taste but from her soft eyes growing self-conscious when she gave me the parcel. Those meals were my favorite, no matter the taste of them. We sat on the steps, out in the open as we spoke of anything that came to mind but never of anything important as there seemed to always be Goddesses listening in.

The longer I spent among the Goddess clan the more and more I learned about Elizabeth. The two guard Archangels, Tarmiel and Sariel were staunch supporters of her. Their council, being the Goddesses rulers, had taken to call this treaty 'Elizabeth's seeded flower'. Goddesses and their flowers, it sounded stupid, but it is truer than they knew.

Our theater meetings are down to once a week with her clan watching us both so intensely now that our relationship is out in the open but I lived for those stolen kisses. She allowed me to explore her body with her clothes between us, as long as I eased her into the new territories. Elizabeth's rare and gentle touches of my own body were shaky. Her natural shyness endeared me and I cherished her bravery whenever her little soft hands felt my skin.

Two weeks into our clan meetings, the routine changed. Elizabeth didn't come to walk me from the gates to the compound. It made me uneasy, my stomach twisting. The entire meeting I knew everyone was leery of me as I couldn't stop the dark tendrils raising whenever I imagined something happening to her. The goddesses wouldn't think it necessary to inform me of anything about Elizabeth.

"Chill," Zeldris commanded, taking the lead in my stead as I was clearly elsewhere. Things that usually didn't irritate me did, and I found myself watching the sky for the sun to reach midpoint. I barely paid attention, leaning back in my chair and more than once Ludociel had to repeat my name and the question before I responded.

Finally, we were allowed our break and I rushed to the front of the compound. I expected her flushed, apologetic smile and a package full of fruit and bread, things the Demons couldn't grow anymore since our fields had been burned. Dread settled. Something was going on. If there was ever a way to get me to rush into a trap it would be through Elizabeth.

Chandler caught up to me first, his beard twitching as he looks around for her too. "It's better this way." I don't know why he thought now would be a good time to push this subject but Zeldris shoved him forward down the steps.

"You're an idiot." Zeldris didn't bother indicating who he was addressing, which meant he thought we both were. I watched them leave down the main street to the gate.

Gloxinia coughed, I looked over and he had a small smile on his face. "The Priestess Temple is that way." He patted my shoulder, nudging his chin to show me which path he meant. Although it had been implied with the path and the angel escorts to stay within this flower-lined boundary, I had never been expressly prohibited from going elsewhere.

Elizabeth had told me about Lady Graelle. If I knocked perhaps she would tell me what had happened or have an explanation. I needed to get my demon energy under control and I released it as I made my way where Gloxinia indicated. Maybe Elizabeth finally had enough of all the whispers behind her back? She was taking the brunt of our relationship. The demon clan didn't know about her, outside of the three that accompanied me. She flaunted me and I hid her. With that thought, the last of my dark energy sizzled out.

I didn't know, not yet. There was no need to worry.

The white building and tiled ground were clean. The sky shone brightly above and I passed a garden, watching the flying Goddesses overhead. If Elizabeth was on her way to the Compound, she would take this path, so I watched for her, looking to the sky. Vaguely I heard a grunt, a harsh rustling of paper and then an apple hit the tip of my foot.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze to find a silver-haired beauty struggling to get up. She was walking? Her face was flushed and she was using her arms to push off the ground rather than her wings? Ignoring the bag of fruit that had scattered, stepping around the goodies I went to her. Elizabeth's eyes were glassed over, she looked at me and my offered hand for two slow blinks of her blue orbs before any sign of recognition shown.

"Meliodas." She hushes, breathy and soft, as she puts her hand in mine. I help her up, gripping her hip to steady her as she wobbles on her feet. "Did I worry you? I've been... Oh no!" Elizabeth spots the berries she'd smashed from her fall. "You'll be hungry." She pouts, then that plump bottom lip pinched between her white teeth.

"You're sick," I state, amazed. The thought hadn't crossed my mind. She was a healer. Hell, most of the goddess clan had that ability. Elizabeth swayed and I tucked her to my side to walk her the way she'd just come. "I didn't think you could get sick."

"It's not..." She insisted. A flash of her white light shines as she uses her own magic on herself and she's cleared up a bit, standing on her own. "It's not an illness... its... the fever." I frown.

"The fever?" I ask, thinking she must still be affected by her illness. She blushes, the tips of her ears tinge and I watch it change shades.

"I'm coming into my power," Elizabeth whispers. "It happens during... the change. Coming of age." I grin, understanding while watching her grow uncomfortable.

"Like puberty?" I offer the word to help her. She nods, looking around as if someone heard the embarrassing news. I laugh, taking her hand to walk with her and feeling her warm skin against mine. Elizabeth did feel hotter than normal. She tugs her hand free, tucking her hair back as she walks beside me, slow.

She didn't want to hold my hand? That wasn't normal. Then I remembered what she'd told me weeks ago at the theater. Holding hands to the goddess clan meant declaring your intentions to be sexual. Here that meant something like marriage. The goddesses entered it like a contract as it could end after some years together while the demons took marriage to mean long-term. I hold my hand out for her to take and I wait for her wide eyes to meet mine with alarm rooted in her clear blue jewels.

"Aren't you interested in coupling with me, Elizabeth?" I make fun of the word she'd used, I expected her usual embarrassed refusal but she softened, her glassy eyes growing warm.

"You remembered?" She said, taking my hand. "I thought maybe..." She flushed, squeezing her fingers around mine and I frowned. Did she mean to be that soft or was she weakened? I didn't understand what a goddess went through to come into their power but she shouldn't be walking about. Not for my sake.

"I'm very interested in coupling with you, Elizabeth." I tell her, "Take my hand anytime you feel like it... In fact, touch me anywhere you want, if the thought occurs to you, act on it." Her normal surprise at my candidness was dulled. My worry deepened. "In fact, I have a few ideas I want to act on myself."

A tall Goddess-shaped superstructure loomed before us. The massive statue was on par with the two holding the over-large gates at the entrance. Her hands were palm up to the sky and her bust protruding out over the tiled street. I knew before she told me, but I listened to her softly say "this is where I live."

"It's like a nunnery," I mutter, looking over at the beautiful girl at my side. I can't help it, "For your first time, I'll make it so pleasurable you'll barely be able to handle it." I went farther than I'd gone before to get a reaction, hoping for a gasp or shocked mouth flop. She smiles, her flush staying the same as if she didn't hear me.

"My body... can barely handle all the sensations you stir up when you touch me." She tells me and my hearts hum in tandem, pulling my hand she had in hers to rest against her collarbone. "Is there much more to feel than what you've already shown me?"

Two things occurred to me. Elizabeth was very ill, she'd never spoken like this before and that indicated how deeply she was affected by her fever. The second thing? I could absolutely not ignore her confession.

"It would be my honor to introduce to you the carnal arts," I tell her, barely able to look away from her curious face to see where we were going. The door to the temple was to the left of the Goddess's knees. Inside the room was cylindrical, going all the way to the top of the goddess statues head. No stairs outside of the one leading to double door one floor up, the other archways are designed to fly through with ornate decorations and antique looking relics of the goddesses. A horn, a vase, a flower in a glass cube and a variety of other old looking items. I had no idea where to go. "Well, I have participated in your Cultures 'interested in coupling' custom, it's only fair you participate in mine."

She looks intrigued, always up for learning about the demon clan. "Which way to your room?" I ask and slowly her hand points to the archway two stories up to the left. I could hear steps approaching from behind and I acted instinctively, scooping up Elizabeth, one arm under her legs and another around her shoulders. With minimal effort, I kicked off the floor toward the archway she'd pointed out and landed softly on the pads of my feet to the opening of the hallway. Her breast is right there and I cup it, adjusting my hold with a few squeezes.

There were doorways, some decorated and others with names on the front. Out of view from the main area, I put Elizabeth down. She swayed on her feet but led the way farther in. Her door was plain with a golden frame and doorknob. Elizabeth opened it and inside is her bedroom. I made sure to memorize this location and went in.

What a small bed. She didn't have much, I suppose she didn't need anything with the goddesses giving ways. Elizabeth left the door open and I couldn't have that. With a quick flick, I shut it silently behind her as she seemed to finally grow embarrassed looking around her things. "What, uh, Custom?" She asked and I grinned, watching her like a cub in my trap.

I stepped in front of her, grim and serious. Her brows furrow as I move fast, flipping her skirt up high and dropping to my knees, placing my face right at her core. She let out a started yelp as I breathed her in, touching the tip of my nose to the soft fabric of her underwear. My hands found her calves and I slide up her silky smooth legs towards her hips as slowly as I could manage without shaking.

My desire sparked into a burning fire as she pushed her skirt down, over my head and inadvertently pushed my face deeper into her core. I finally knew what desire smelled like from her and it drove me wild. A groan escaped me, fingers gripped at her thighs as my hips thrust forward to find purchase and only meeting air.

"I could worship at your core hourly if you allowed it." I breathed heavy against her and deliciously, she shivered. Her fingers found my hair and she fisted my locks with heavy pants filling the room.

Mission accomplished. I wanted her to imagine everything I could do to her.

"M-Meliodas!" She exclaimed soft, knees buckling and I had just enough time to stand back to catch her.

I held her, sagged against me until she caught her breath and I took pity on her. Her bed was behind me and I gently pushed the blankets back picking her up to position her on the mattress. Her eyes sparkled but the glassy sick sheen is still apparent.

"Did I make you feel better?" I asked, tucking her into her blankets. A rag and a bowl of water were already on her little bedside table so I rung out the cloth, placing it over her forehead. They put flowers in the water too, I shake my head, but Elizabeth deserved sweet scents.

"Yeah." She whispers, smiling in a lazy way as her eyes fall to half mast.

"Ahh, look at that," I mutter, wishing to see that satisfied face every time I touched her. But this wasn't in response to anything sexual... she had needed to be in bed that badly. She'd pushed herself to see me. "If you aren't feeling better next time, don't worry about me." It hurts to tell her not to see me, I already missed her running to wrap me up in her arms.

Elizabeth's little chin tucks under her covers as she nods, her hair splayed out across her pillow. She was awash in pastel and briefly I wonder if her world was so washed out because she burned so brightly. Her little hand comes out and takes mine, holding it sweetly. A fist in my stomach rose and clutched at my center heart to squeeze it, so tight it is almost painful.

On her desk, she had flyers on women's rights, some pens and little sketches of crude animals and flowers. Her dresser was closed and tidy. I look out her window to guess if I'm needed back at the compound when I see a gold coin on the sill.

A demon coin.

She'd kept it. The only personal thing that stood out in her bare room was what I had given her, so flippantly. When I looked down again at my girl, her eyes were closed. She turned toward me, tucking my hand against her face as she slept on. My hearts hummed and I smiled freely. I was so gone for this little goddess.


	9. My Panties

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Nine: My Panties

I felt sweaty. Slowly, with heavy limbs. I rose to find the scented water bowl. Oh, thank you Lady Graelle. With shaking hands, I peeled my dress off and shimmied my underwear down to kick off with my toes. The cool water felt amazing and I roamed the rag over my body a second time for the sensation of trickling water over my heated flesh.

Outside it was dark. Had I slept all day or was I up really early? I dipped to check for the lit beacons around the temple and as they were snuffed out, that meant early morning. The fires only burned for so long.

I look over my body for any changes, frowning when I see my wings have grown an inch longer. My energy would be zapped today and I hoped my fever didn't return as occasionally they hit in a duo.

I felt something... something dark and deep heading my way and I watched out the window. Was that a shadow? Had the vampire returned? I put the rag down, into my bowl, trying to stand but finding my legs too wobbling to hold myself up. A soft thump sounded and I grabbed my blankets, pulling it over myself. It didn't feel evil and my heart raced as I watched my doorknob turn ever so slowly.

Instinctively I grabbed my hairbrush from beside the water bowl and as the dark figure ducked into my room I threw it. It made contact, a solid thump as a rich string of quiet curses escaped the man. Silently he closed my door.

"Meliodas?" I whispered, appalled that he was in my room... alone with me. I clutched at my blankets to pull them closer around me as I realized. I'm naked! In my room with a man!

"I see you're feeling better." He says, picking up my hairbrush and setting it on top of my dresser. I feel guilty as he rubs the side of his head with a grimace.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you. Are you okay?" I ask in disbelief he was even here but keeping my voice low as to not wake anyone else on the floor.

"I should be asking you that." He quips, "Nice aim, though." He continues, looking me over. With a sly smile I can make out in the dark, I know his thoughts have turned naughty and I frown. How did he know how to get to my room? My spine shoots straight as I remember holding hands with him in public! He'd asked if I was interested in coupling and I had agreed! I had asked what else he could show me with my body! How indecent! Would he ever look at me the same way?

"Oh... Oh no!" I groan as I use my elbows to hold my blanket up under my arms and cover my face in my hands. "You... put your face..." I mutter, remembering the tingles that erupted from my most secret of places. Like a mini firework at my core. His heady voice echoed from my memory "I could worship at your core hourly if you allowed it."

"You are feeling better." Meliodas states, I chance a glace through my fingers and I'm alarmed at how at-home he looks among my things. Meliodas is so calm. He steps forward toward the bed and I hold my hands out as a barrier, panicked and thankfully he stops mid-stride. "Elizabeth." He says, sounding lost. "Why do you resist us so fiercely?"

"I... I'm... what?" I ask, my arms wrapping around the blanket at my torso to hold myself together better.

"Yesterday, you admitted to having desires and yet you fight it?" It's such a sincere question I can tell he wanted to understand me. I flush, trying to find the words.

"If I'm... like that... a lady with those urges, then I won't be suitable." I flush, hearing the own fallacies in my logic. I'd been told so often to ignore my own body, to act a certain way so others would see me in a specific manner. This is what Jelamet had been explaining to me, my own attempt to explain it helping me. Understanding flooded me and I made a note to talk to her later.

"You are so much more than suitable." He determines, frowning down at me from a few steps away. "I don't know why you repress your own natural desires but with me... you can enjoy it. Relish in the feeling and take what you can now, while you have the time."

Oh... He knew my time was likely short? I had lasted longer than any other child of the Supreme Deity but I was still having the fever years and years past when it was natural. Most children were out of their fevers by the time they grew their wings fully. "How did you find out?" I asked, unable to meet his eyes. He'd been among my people long enough, I suppose it would come up.

"Find out what?" He's curious again, I feel the bed shift and I flush. He is in-my-bed. I made a decision not to fight my reaction and focused on my body. Warmth pooled in my lower stomach and I found myself... excited? "Find out what?" Meliodas repeated.

"That my... that I'm the Supreme Deities daughter," I whisper, wishing it wasn't true. His jolt of shock rocks the mattress but I didn't dare look as he freezes in place. Is this the end for us? "The longest surviving one, as the power will inevitably kill me," I admit, realizing just from his stillness that he had no idea. "The fevers, I shouldn't get them anymore. If I'm not strong enough... I thought when you were telling me to embrace the time I had left, that you knew." I'm basically a maybe, not worth investing in as I may not survive but with the potential of what I could be... my clan couldn't seem to help it. It's another reason why I couldn't take my destined role yet.

"When I lived past childhood, which was more than any of the siblings that came before... There were a lot of expectations but I don't seem to live up to them, not even my own." I fold into myself, clutching at my hands on my lap.

"Then that's not something to worry about." He concluded, his voice soft again, nonchalant. "You are the strongest person I know. Your drive and determination inspire. You've swayed so many hearts in this damned city I'm surprised you aren't a councilwoman at this point. If anyone's got this, its you."

He... wasn't worried? He thought I was strong enough to survive, just like that? His faith in me made my tummy feel like it was floating and I let out a long sigh of relief. My face grew hot. He believed in me, so I would believe in myself. But I had to make sure he meant it and his eyes always gave him away. I met his gaze and they were moss green and clear of any deceit.

"So... the son of the demon king and the daughter of the supreme deity." He tsks, that half smile back on his lips as I can't help but respond, the tension in my chest easing. "Isn't that an explosive pairing."

I made the decision then, with how happy I felt at this moment that I wouldn't hold myself back anymore. I didn't want to be coupled to a stuck up goddess man or be looked down on for having natural urges. With a shaky breath, I gather my courage.

"So... you have urges too?" I ask, so quiet I don't even hear it. With only the light from the window to illuminate him, I watch as his brow lowers and his lip tips in a roguish smile.

"Would you like me to stop resisting mine?" He leaned back, his arms going up over his head as his shoulders rested on the wall my bed was pressed against. "We can make a pact with each other... anything goes unless expressed. You can learn what you like and neither of us will hold back anymore. Deal?"

I think it over, wondering just how far he could take my body. Kissing him was like waves of pleasure and when he had done that thing with his tongue in my mouth the last visit to the theater, I don't know how I stayed upright. My fists closed tight at the fabric bunched at my front. Agreeing to this would open a whole new chapter to life.

In a rush of speculation, I thought back to everything Meliodas has done so far. Had he ended the war? He was Demon prince... the truce... Was Meliodas such a heavy proponent of peace to be with me? My chest swelled with hope and with frantic beats I found myself breathless. He'd fought off a vampire, catching my fall, intent on stopping my crash even at the risk of his own self. We were still new, I didn't know much about the progression of such things but I thought, this was something serious between us.

"I'll agree on one condition." I said, steeling myself for the bubble of tenderness I felt for this man to be shattered. He waited and I took a breath, meeting his eyes to implore him to give the answer I wanted from him. "It's only with each other. While we're exploring this neither of us will be with anyone else."

A slow grin spreads. "That's easy. I agree to your terms and I almost feel guilty having a condition of my own when yours will be so easy to abide by." He had a condition? "You have to be honest with me, I want you to tell me what your body is feeling and talk to me about any concerns."

"Okay," I tell him, knowing it will be embarrassing yet I needed to express myself. I trusted Meliodas. In order for him to trust me, I needed to tell him when I wasn't comfortable or if we were going too fast for me. We stare at one another, shadows shielded parts of his face and I watched as he removed his cloak to toss the fabric to the floor.

"I want to see you." Suddenly the room felt small and Meliodas leaned forward, his arm supporting him by my hip as he turned, knee sliding on top of the mattress. Oh, now? We were starting right this instant? He leans toward my face, inches away "I've been humming since I realized only one little blanket separates me from your bare body." Humming? Like the butterflies I felt?

"Do you... feel what I feel?" I ask him, growing warmer the longer he stared. "When I feel you or you feel me, it's more. I've never been touched as you touch me."

"Hmm... say that again." I don't abide by his wish, instead, I lean to meet him and ever so softly I kiss him. It was barely a feathers touch but he seems to melt. Pressing foreheads together he slowly grips the blanket in his fist, as if he wanted to make this last. Or maybe give me plenty of time to back out?

My skin felt sensitive, maybe from recovering from the fever or maybe from being under Meliodas scrutiny but the blanket left trails of gentle tingles in its wake. I released my grip on the blanket, letting it fall to my waist and I watch as his tongue darts out to swipe at his lips. A low groan sounds from his throat and with shaking hands, his knuckles follow my collarbone and slide down, over the swell of my breast.

"Oh." I breathe, looking down at his hand on me. They felt heavy. like my breasts wanted to be petted. I'd never played with my own chest before, did it always send tingles to my core? For experimentation purposes, I rub my unoccupied tit and a disappointing dull response echoed back. Compared to Meliodas' skilled ministrations, my fondling felt like a friendly handshake.

Yet, with me rubbing myself, Meliodas moaned. His lips parted a few inches from my face and his warm breath mingled over my exposed neck. I liked him liking me. With another rub on myself Meliodas guided me to lay back. I hesitated before relenting and falling back onto my pillow. My wings fold under me. He crawled forward, his other knee finding purchase among my sheets and he freed his other hand from supporting himself to trace the underside of my other breast. With him looming over my body, I came alive, arching as if with little jolts of pleasure-electricity.

"They flush, so prettily, just like you do." He says, and I know he isn't really talking to me. "You don't wear a bra, do you? I don't see how you'd need one with the springiness to your, perfect, silky roundness." I grow even hotter at his words, down at my core and up at my face. He played with my chest, a slow exploration.

With both his hands he uses his fingertips to trace designs across my bare chest. I tensed at the first touch of my nipple and each time I showed any sign of discomfort Meliodas would stop, kiss me and let me recover. I am imploding, my core needed something and I had a feeling it's these same touches but I wanted them down there. Just at the thought I grew mortified and again, Meliodas paused.

"How do you feel?" He asks, husky and deep as he swallows.

"Warm." I whisper, suddenly aware that I didn't have a place to put my hands. "Like I'm full of... energy, but it wants out and I don't know... I don't know what to do." An idea forms and I slowly sit up, reaching for the buttons on his shirt. He doesn't stop me, which is enough of an invitation per our arrangement. My fingers graze his hard muscles with each unlatching and when the last button is undone I grip either side of his shirt. I lean forward, placing a kiss over his collarbone as he sits slightly back on his heels, knees bent and spread to accommodate me. With a steadying breath, I shift underneath him to line us up and before I lose my nerve I adjust my seat to press my bare chest against his, parting his shirt.

Sparks flew and I gasped, feeling so much of his flesh all at once overloaded my senses. I lost any sense of where I was, gasping too loudly and his mouth covers mine in desperation. He wrapped his arms around my back, holding me against him as I came back to the real world.

Kissing him back came easy but I wanted to try the tongue thing he had done to me. I parted my lips, not sure how to ask but Meliodas followed my lead, parting his against me and it came naturally, just like he said. This was instinctual. It's supposed to be him. I tentatively touched my tongue to his as I let go of his open shirt to feel his sides, enjoying his flesh. Slowly I wrapped around him, my hands grabbing at his back and adjusting to part my legs to straddle his bent knee and I rested my core against the hard bone there.

With the first contact to my vulnerable and bare slit, my core pulsed. As if it had a heartbeat. It was slick, and I slipped down, the touch at my core arched my back. My sensitive chest rubbing against his, he is unyielding against me, our breaths hot and mingling. His rough palms cupped my ass and from the contact, my core rubbed over his knee a second time. I shake, feeling the need to press again, to feel that ever expanded bubble burst.

My bare core... oh!

The blanket had fallen away. I snapped back, yelping and clutching at myself. My legs crossed and I attempted to get my breath under control. I felt lost, adrift in a sea and I heard my whimper without meaning to release it. Then Meliodas was there, palms up, eyes a deep molten green in the moonlight.

"I feel it too." He tells me. "That... overfull, bursting at the seams feeling." I nod, latching on to him to grip his upper arms and lean my head against his shoulder. He felt it too! I wasn't adrift alone. The panic in my chest unclenched. Meliodas is here, so everything would be okay. My racing heart started to calm.

"I'm sorry," I mumble, feeling the streams of tears fall and I use his shirt to wipe at them, trying to hide them. He was probably used to women knowing what to do and not freaking out when they feel too much. "Are you... disappointed?" I muttered.

"Oh, sweet girl, not even a little." His strong arms wrapped around me, his nose trailing up my ear and my core pulsed again as if we hadn't stopped at all. "I've never felt even half as much as what I feel with you. I'm blown away and honestly... I'm a little afraid too."

Then he must have felt what I felt. We were the same. I pulled back, less ashamed of my reactions and nakedness. He didn't look any different, warm lazy eyes and an easy smile. His shirt was still open and I looked my fill. My eyes followed his ripped muscles to a v that pointed to a bulge protruding from between his legs and tenting his pants forward.

I knew the basic differences between a man and a woman but I'd never felt one before. Without thinking I reach forward to touch him, but he intercepts me, taking my hand and kissing each of my fingers before pushing my palm to his cheek. I should have asked! I realize, but he doesn't look even the slightest bit upset. His eyes roam my nakedness and I can't help but squirm, resisting my temptation to cover up.

"Let me dress you." He says, "I have to leave soon and I want to lay with you awhile." I untangle from him, stepping from the bed. A low hiss from Meliodas gives me pause and I wobble as my head rushes. Maybe I hadn't recovered from my fever? With a hand on my forehead, I worry over Meliodas. He's frozen, fists clenched and eyes narrowed.

"Are you okay?" I ask but he shakes his head as if to clear it and in a blink he's over at my dresser, pulling open the top drawer. Oh! That's my underwear!

"No!" I whisper, scandalized, as I rush over. His eyes are wide and too innocent as he plucks a pair free just as I reach around to close the drawer. My bare arm rubs against his and the soft sensation draws me in. My retreat is slow, to prolong the touch. "Give me my underwear!" I demand, holding my hand out for it.

"No." He answers, flippantly. Without looking away he presses my panties to his nose and breaths in. "Come here." He says, dropping to his knees and I shiver. He'd dipped his face into my core yesterday and I held my breath both hoping he would and hoping he wouldn't.

A light touch to my ankle shocked my lungs into starting again. I relaxed, letting him pick my foot up and slip my panties up to my ankle there. He repeated the process on the other side and with a crawling, agonizing pace, his fingers splayed out and palm making full contact while feeling up my calves. I could hardly contain the quivers of my core but my knees grow weak, having to hold onto my dresser for support.

He took his time to pull the elastic over my rounded behind and adjusted the waist three times, fingers dipping just below the band. The noises escaping me were foreign, gasps and panting breaths. Meliodas stood, slapping my behind as if to say 'good work' and placed a kiss on my collar as he cupped my breast. His jaw nuzzled, his cheek brushing against the swell of my bust.

I sighed, grateful when he pulled away so I could catch my breath and calm my body.

When he went through my other drawers I didn't mind. He took his time, flipping through the folded squares of fabric. "Is it... always like this?" I grow hot and wonder out loud "or is it the fever?"

"In the name of science, I will gladly explore your body at every opportunity." He pulled a dress free, touching his hand over his heart as if he was accepting a noble task. "No matter how long it takes or how often my skills are required." I giggle, the impulse too strong to resist. His green eyes danced with happiness as he shook out my dress.

He had picked the thigh length dress with the buttons all down the front. Meliodas opened the front and moved behind me to drape it over my shoulders, my wings fluttering in the slit- hole at the back. I looped my arms through the sleeves. He trailed barely there touches up from my wrists to my shoulders, one side at a time and I felt his touch linger even after he stopped.

Meliodas walked around my body, hand feeling around my hip as he straightened my dress for me. As he lined up the bottom button. I watched his fingers work mere centimeters from my core. To steady myself I moved my hands to either of his shoulders and under my touch, I noticed he wasn't breathing. Still and focused on his task at hand. At my belly button, he leisurely grazed his knuckles there.

"Hmmm." I bite my lip to stop myself from any more sounds escaping. He spent the most time, at my chest buttons. Meliodas had a half smile, his eyes showed me how amazed he was. His soft face made me smile and when he looked up at me, I was fully dressed. I twisted my hands from his shoulders to wrap my arms around his neck and stepped forward to embrace him, his face pressing into the softness of my torso.

With a dip, he picked me up, arm under my knees and walked us over to the bed. I held on. Gently he laid me down, close to the wall. He dipped away to pick something up off the floor but also brought up my blanket. Sliding in with me, he tossed the blanket up and it floated down over us as he tucked in against me. I put my head on his arm and placed my hand on his open, chest.

His fingers played in my hair and for minutes we just shared small smiles. My insides still felt gooey but just laying like this... it's peaceful.

"I don't want to," He reaches up to tuck my hair behind my ear "but I have to go, others are starting to move around. Plus I need to arrive through the front gate." Reality came crashing back. We were stealing kisses under our clan's noses and I flushed.

"Meliodas..." I whisper, afraid we were doomed. That we may have been damned from the very beginning.

"Hm?" He asks, seeming to squeeze the last moments of my tender touches from our little dark corner of the world. I nuzzled in, shimmying down to rest my chin on his peck. I placed a soft kiss there before deciding not to bare my worries on him. He had enough going on with this treaty. While looking at him, I decide on another confession.

"I like you more than I should." I wasn't the least bit embarrassed about it and his winning smile made my heart flutter. My affection grew, knowing that after everything he's done to my body, he treated me no differently. I felt lighter, fuller and as if I fit inside my own body a little better. All that talk of 'staying pure' and 'resisting urges' from Lady Mabel was a crock. Beyond that, it was a disservice.

My worth shouldn't be measured by what my body likes.

Lady Graelle and Jelamet had already expressed this view. I didn't understand it fully, not until now. Not until Meliodas.

He waited longer than he should. The sky was lightening and I heard another of my sisters-in-waiting fly down the hall outside my door. Meliodas' soft expression turned wily as he shimmied out from under me. I went to get up.

"No, you still need to rest." Meliodas adjusted my blanket, even tucking the ends around my body as if cocooning me. "I have something I want to discuss with you." He whispers, moving his feet to the floor and leaning over me, his hands over both my breast as he kneads them with a thoughtful face. "Would you be interested in an Ambassador position, a dignitary between us demons and the goddesses. I think with your kind nature, your willingness to understand the motivations behind actions you would be perfect and, you'd be free to leave here."

I flush. Not only was Meliodas ending this war but he found a way to set me free?

"Oh, Meliodas," I whisper, wanting to hug his head but the tucked blankets combined with his body weight just resulted in a little wiggle. "I've not much experience."

"The council is swayed by your voice and your advocacy of women's rights have reached our treaty members ears. You are more capable than you know." I grow hot, being praised as if I were powerful in this way...

"I'll do it," I tell him, excited for the prospect of maybe one day going to the demon clan with him. He kisses my forehead.

"Go back to sleep." He winks, giving me another squeeze and I giggle, but sad to see him go. I listened for a scream to indicate he'd been caught but he successfully left without detection.


	10. A Little Defiance

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Ten: A little Defiance 

I couldn't go back to sleep. I missed him. It had been less than twenty minutes and even though my body was tired I didn't want to skip a moment of our time. We were from different clans, both a hair's breadth away from another hundred years of death, battles, and hatred. It had been going on my entire life and this truce is the first taste of peace, of happiness, I've ever had.

The blankets were warm but I slipped out of them, grabbing my shoes from under the bed and I step from my room. If I was quiet and quick, I may be able to leave here without anyone's notice, so I could wait at the gate for Meliodas.

I knew my body was not fully recovered when I reached the doors to leave and hadn't spotted Lady Graelle until it was too late. I had been too involved in my thoughts, going over what Meliodas had done to my body not hours before.

"Oh, dear girl, do you still have a fever?" Lady Graelle's concerned, coming forward to touch my forehead. "Oh, hot as a boiling pot." The kind old lady wraps her arm around my shoulders but I resist her guidance.

"I'll lay down after I walk with Meliodas," I tell her, smiling at her in an attempt at reassurance.

"Oh, he can get on without you." She insists, perhaps trying to reassure me. Again, she tries to guide me back toward the way I came. Her long floor length dress hung from her shoulders loosely and her slippers poked out when she walked.

"No." I put my foot down, turning from Lady Graelle's embrace with a speed I didn't know I had. She huffed, her eyes wide in shock before a little smile graced her lips, as if proud.

"I'll blame that on the fever, young lady." She chides, miffed but I wave bye to her and head down the street to the main gate. I had to hurry if I wanted to be there when he arrived. I hadn't brought a companion with me so I did get a few long confused looks. Since Meliodas and I had our first lunch together on the steps of the compound I've gotten plenty of strange expressions directed at me.

The sun had risen. Above, the sky is clear and I wanted to fly up but I hadn't put on pants as I hadn't been the one to dress myself today. I grew warm, thinking of it but stayed low to the ground to keep my panties from being shown off. When I reached the flower-lined path, I turned, heading toward the gates.

Up ahead, they were still closed and I dropped to the walkway. The wind blew through the bars. I breathed in, closing my eyes and turning to the sun to soak it in. I felt tired but, good, better. My wings stretched out and I fluttered them as if shaking the rain from them. I felt him, his aura and I grinned in anticipation as he and his companions dropped to the platform. With joy swelling in my bosom I opened my eyes and turned to my special friend, away from the sun to something better.

"What a beautiful sight, Elizabeth." He admires, just on the other side of the gold bars. I gave him a once-over, thinking he looked pretty good himself while flushing, pleased at his words. He'd buttoned his shirt but his cloak was gone, having kept the same clothes on from before but a pale blue cloth was in his breast pocket. The little bow familiar to me.

Oh. Ooooh! "You give that back right this instant!" I demand, jumping to the gate's bars and reaching forward to grab at my dirty undergarment. He must have found them on my floor! I'd kicked them off before I'd given myself that scented bath and it wasn't like I had time to clean them before his arrival.

He laughs, laughs! Skidding back just out of reach and I glare.

"Meliodas!" I scold, weaving my arm back through the gate and crossing them under my breasts with a huff. "When this gate opens..." I warn and it's like my wish was heard and granted as the gates separate.

"Oh, don't be angry with me." He soothes, still chuckling so any sympathy I may have had didn't rise.

"How can I not be!" I explain but realize Zeldris is looking between us in confusion. "Hello again, Zeldris." I say, giving him a wave and then greeting Chandler and Cusack. The two elders barely gave me a head nod but Zeldris was polite today. Walking with Meliodas each morning meant I also walked with them.

"I've never seen you angry before," Zeldris says and I shrug.

"Well, your brother is an idiot," I explain as if talking about the weather. They step forward as the gate parts and Meliodas had a hand over his heart in a dramatic fashion.

"You wound me." He mock-cried but I step to the right, just to dive with a great push of my wings to take him off guard. Meliodas is surprised, getting out of my direct path but grabbing my hand to spin us in place so I didn't fly off the platform. I had wings, but I used his instinct to save me to my advantage and reached for the panties. "You've gotten faster." He admires, closing the distance between our bodies. "Are you growing into all that power?"

"Don't change the subject!" I dip out from his arm and he looks impressed again. Was I really that much faster? "I want them back." I hold my hand out, refusing to move but Meliodas grins, some of his darkness even fades as if his emotions are too overpowering for it to stay. His laugh echoes off the stone.

"I can promise you, Elizabeth," He starts walking, following his fellow demons who had resolved not to pay us any mind already ahead of us. He ignored my outstretched hand. "These are mine now, I took them fair and square and I won't return them." He tsks, looking over his shoulder with that same wide smile. "You could say I've earned them." As soon as he faces toward the compound I use my new speed to launch onto his back.

With arms over his shoulder, I go for the panties. He keeps walking as if he didn't notice my sudden assault to his person. His hands were so quick, he moved the pair from his breast pocket to his pants pocket, opposite the shoulder I was draped over. I stretched, ass in the air to follow the little bit of fabric. I wiggled my fingers inside his pants pocket and his head tilted back in laughter as I found... nothing.

"Oh, sweet Elizabeth, are you searching my pants for something in particular?" I flush, but switch sides, thinking it must be in the other pocket. One hand pressed against his torso to arch far enough away to get a deeper feel and... this one was empty too. His face turned toward my behind, over his shoulder and he gave it a kiss. I was surprised he hadn't groped it yet but just then, he tossed my panties in the air and snagged them with his other hand before I could react.

"Meliodas!" I yell, wrapping my one calf around his stomach so I wouldn't fall as I captured his fist between my palms outstretched before us. I tried to pry them open, feeling the fabric there just enough to stroke my frustration. "Open up!" I tell him, paying no attention to our surroundings as Meliodas continued his pace forward, but jumping slightly so I jostled. He moved easily as if my weight was so inconsequential I could have been a scarf over his shoulder.

"Okay." He shakes his fist and I let go, expecting his fist to unfold but it blurs before uncurling and it's his empty palm before my face. "I opened it, as you asked." Wryly he chuckles and I slap his chest. My own laugh burst forth, happy but not giving up.

"Just give them back!" I plead, checking both his pockets at once as I let my leg go from his midsection to drape over his shoulder once more. We stop.

"Although I hate to cut our play short, my duties call." Meliodas quips, humor-laced in his every word. Slowly, I look up. We were in the Archangel compound. The four Archangels were in the room, no longer talking to one another. The fairies and the three other demons were already seated at the roundtable. All eyes were on us, or, me in particular.

"Oh," I say, flushing as I turned from them to look up at Meliodas. Slowly I removed my hands from his pants pockets and took to the air. It was the quickest way off him.

"What a refreshing change," Meliodas says, watching my flight up and descent to put my feet on the ground. "You groping me, in public no less." He says it just to embarrass me and it works, my face flushing but I look at all the shocked faced from the other clans and angry, scandalized faces of my own clan.

"If you'll excuse me," I say, bowing to those in the room and turning, walking past Meliodas. I noticed there wasn't a hint of his darkness, his eyes glowing such a warm green but I didn't think about it. Why hadn't I watched where we were going? I gripped my own elbows, holding myself together as I tap across the tile toward the exit.

I hadn't made it far, down the steps but still on the flowered path when a rough hand touches my elbow and I turn, dazed to find my warm-faced demon looking concerned at me.

"I-" He starts, brow furrowing. "I'm sorry if I-" He fumbles, looking so lost. "You're distressed." He stated, so much more comfortable with statements rather than apologies, apparently.

"I'm okay," I tell him, softening into a smile. He'd left his meeting. Not everyone had arrived yet, but still.

"You're walking." He tells me, and I frown, looking down at my feet. "You told me a goddess only walks when they are mourning. That they... forget to fly in their sadness." He explains, taking my hand. "I didn't mean to embarrass you, I just wanted our time to last as long as it could." He explains and I smile, nodding.

"I'm not upset," I tell him, meaning it now, as I wanted to be with him for every second I could spare too. "I just..." I look around, whispering as I lean towards him. "I still have a bit of fever." My face grows hot but it's happening so often I'm surprised I'm not a heat lamp at this point. The fever would explain my lack of self-awareness.

Concern tints his deep emerald eyes and I smile. "Am I really faster?" I ask, hopeful and he smiles back, slowly.

"Yeah." He says. "Do you always get something more when you..." He trails off and I'm grateful.

"My wings grew," I tell him, shy about this fact but for him, I unfurrowed them. "Last time... afterward I could manage two goddess ark-blades. Although, I'll never use that skill." I tell him. "Don't tell the Archangels, they'll just... Well, it doesn't matter anyway." I shake my head, touching my forehead as a dull ache blooms there.

"Go rest." He tells me but I reach out, touching his arm one last time.

"I hope my bed still smells like you," I whisper, relishing his softened expression as I turn, flying off toward the temple. When I laid down I laughed to myself, realizing that devious asshat had kept my panties, after all that.

My bed did indeed smell like him.

I'd woken mid-morning, with plenty of time to gather some food to bring Meliodas but I had things to do before then. Jelamet had already told me yesterday that if my fever continued she would meet the council on her own today. I was glad she wouldn't have too. Those old geezers could be dismissive and with my parentage, they never discounted me, no matter how outlandish my ideas.

In a bit of a rush I put together a cucumber, tomato sandwich and while I picked one of each in the garden, I gathered the best berries from the vines. Strawberries today. I bet his face will light up at those. I folded them up in wax paper, tucking them into a sack. Jelamet was in Lady Graelle's chambers and I apologized quickly for falling ill at such a bad time for us.

Her chambers opened to an office. There were two full bookshelves, an elaborate desk with her sitting behind it and two chairs opposite her. I'd been scolded many a time in that wooden backed chair, but on that same side of the coin, I'd been comforted on the red cushioned couch positioned to the right twice that much. On the left was the door to her bedroom.

"We're just glad you're well enough to be up and about." Lady Graelle says and Jelamet gives me a sad smile, nodding.

"Do you want me to do the talking, you didn't get to prepare much yesterday." Jelamet holds up the 'points of interest' paper she must have been reviewing. I smile and shrug, coming to stand before Lady Graelle's heavy wooden desk.

"I know you hate public speaking," I tell her and her shoulders sag in relief as she basically flings the papers away from herself and into my hands. Lady Graelle had her bag packed and after some last minute overviews of the most important points, the three of us head to the council chambers.

Usually, we would meet in the Archangels conference room but as it was already in use, we were going to the much smaller town hall. I read and reread what I had written a few weeks ago, hoping my fever didn't influence anything. "You'll step in, if I get... weird, right?" I ask, looking to my beautiful friend.

"Of course. We all know how the fevers affect you." She squeezes my forearm and I feel better. "After this, we'll see if you can do anything new." Lady Graelle and Jelamet knew my full capabilities but I knew from my long gone siblings that all of the supreme diety's children grew stronger and better with age and fever. Anyone with that knowledge would know.

We crossed the flower-lined road and I couldn't help but look in the compounds direction. I could feel Meliodas there. Like a beacon.

Goddesses were staring at me. I met some eyes, wondering why until I heard a whisper, from across the fly-way. 'Yes, a Demon!' The blonde cropped lady said to her stout friend as they pass. I looked and they were both looking back to me, wide-eyed. With purpose, I smiled, hoping they understood- I wasn't ashamed. Hate isn't erased that easily. This war had been going on for over a hundred years. A few weeks wouldn't change things but I had hope they will eventually.

The council building was white, a garden of flowers and pillars spanning the front. The entrance wasn't on the ground floor, it's positioned in the center of the windowed three-storied building, with doors already open. We met the five council members along with the priest from our temple- who isn't a council member but acted with all the same rights as one.

I gave my speech. How women should be able to choose a path without being coupled. That being tested for purity before being granted a life at the temple was barbaric. That all women should be free to choose any life they want, whether it be in battle, or on the council or to be a sister-in-waiting.

Lady Graelle gave her support, once I was finished addressing the group and I flushed at her praise of my character. "She's the Supreme Diety's daughter, so strong in her convictions that even still enduring her fever over the last few days, she's here fighting for her people."

The council had looked shocked and I flushed hot again. Did she have to mention my fever?

While they discussed, which was estimated to take some time, I went to deliver Meliodas his lunch. I was flying up the main path to the compound when I saw the lot of them start trickling from the doors. His whole face changed when he saw me and I stalled in my flying for an embarrassing second but I recovered, dropping down too soon and walking the rest of the distance. He met me halfway, leaving his conversation he was having with Gloxinia, whom I waved too.

"How'd the council meeting go?" He asked, and I smiled, hopeful.

When I gave him his lunch sack and when he pulled out a strawberry his face shines with glee. Just as I was explaining my speech and the wonderful things Lady Graelle had said about me, Locudiel walked over to the two of us.

"Lady Elizabeth." He acknowledged warmly "Lord Meliodas," he blankly said, dismissing him without a glance as he focused on me. "I've just been summoned to the Council. It seems I'm needed to sway the final members for a majority vote." His words send my heart racing in fear.

"Ludociel, please! I know you are frustrated with me, but this policy, it's bigger than us." I adjust my stance firmly as if I were about to fight. I was, but not physically. Meliodas though, adjusted his own stance, in tune with me to a... subconscious level? I barely gave him a startled look before addressing the Archangel again. "Regardless of how you feel about me, think of all the grown women who are stuck- who-"

"Stop." He commands and I glare up at him. "It seems you are under the impression I'm against this proposal. That is an incorrect assumption. Most of our views are in alignment." Ludociel looks me up, then down, a little too lingeringly and I frown. "Open your eyes, Elizabeth. Cut your ties with Meliodas, there are plenty more suitable, and better fitting partners for you. For example, anyone else."

A strange combination of shock and defiance coursed through me. My wings unfurrowed and I glared up at Ludociels narrow angular face with a new found anger towards this man that had never been there before. With itching palms I clenched my fists, ready to do something to knock that smirk off his face until... someone grabbed my behind.

Woah

I turn, dropping my wings and meet eyes with Meliodas. Any anger fizzled as I yelped and hopped away from his squeezing hands. Ludociel sighed wearily, looking at me as if I should see what he was talking about so clearly and thought I was an idiot for not getting it. He walked on, and I stared at his retreating back, a little concerned that he did support woman's expanding rights. He must have a reason for it.

Everything Ludociel did was for his own interest.

Meliodas is in front of me and I refocus, letting go of my worry as I look at him. He pops an entire strawberry, greens and all in his mouth. "He was trying to get a rise out of you," Meliodas explains, his messy hair looked more so today, his disarray a little charming. "Although, he is right. It would be a lot easier if you choose anyone else in your own clan."

"Yeah, probably." I admit, scoffing, "but I wouldn't be happy. The precious moments I have with you are worth the struggles."

"It would have been easier if you didn't flaunt us to everyone," Meliodas advised, a steady calm in his voice and when I stare at him, he's looking into his lunch sack, his chaotic hair covering his face. Unreadable, and it hurt.

I thought back to the first day he had come walking across our city, when I had flown at him while everyone watched, hugging him. Had he not wanted me to do that? The demons he had with him... maybe he had wanted to keep me a secret? I had exposed us and for a horrified moment, I thought of Jelamet with Davian- how he kept her on the side, and as a secret.

"Oh," I say, mortified as I cover my mouth. My eyes fill and I hate it, knowing the tears were going to flow. He had wanted an easy relationship. Touching in secret, but with me having declared us... "I, I must have misunderstood our relationship." I whisper, streams of tears dripping, flowers blooming where they fell.

With wide eyes, Meliodas took in my tears.

"I made the decision for us." I choke out, "I made it harder for you without thinking." My stance loosens, my shoulders sagging. "But if you wanted to keep me a secret, you should have said!" I hiss, glaring at his slightly panicked eyes. My palms itch again. After Ludociel hiked me up to this level of anger I fell into it easily, thinking of him wanting to keep me hidden away. "If you didn't want to fight for this, for us-"

"Elizabeth." Meliodas interrupts, "I think you misunderstood." He pops another whole strawberry in his mouth, smiling so infuriatingly. "But, more pressingly, your hands are glowing. They did that with Ludociel too. Really, I had no choice but to fondle you, a life or death situation gone with one sensational squeeze."

My hands? I look down and the white goddess energy was leaking from them. Oh! Oh no! I shook them and it faded, as I held them close to my chest. Was I a danger to people? Had Meliodas really stopped me from hurting Ludociel like that? My heart raced. The fever had increased my power, was I unstable? Last fever I had I stayed in bed for a few days longer with delirium, maybe that's why this was happening. This fever had been quick. I just needed to get a handle on myself, it would equal out with rest.

Warm hands guided me, as I stared, stuck in my own thoughts. Would I burst, like an ark if I got too emotional about something? I had been all over Meliodas, with a myriad of emotions and hadn't glowed then. Just anger triggered me? Or the call to fight, did that spark it? Could I control myself that much? I felt my body gently maneuvered to a sitting position, hard stone under me.

Had Meliodas and I's night together only been so intense because of my powers awakening? I thought it silly before, that we would be scientifically checking that but now I found myself actually concerned. Ludociel had tipped me into a new level of anger and Meliodas had caught the brunt of it when I didn't have an outlet.

"I'm sorry." I said, looking around to find myself on the steps of the compound.

"Up here." Meliodas said, sitting behind me, a step above with his legs wide and the last bite of his sandwich in his hand.

"I think I'm still a little out of it, power wise and... That's no excuse for my behavior or my anger with you." I grow hot. Fighting my natural reflex to look away. "I didn't realize you wanted to keep us a secret. The thought hadn't crossed my mind. If I've made your life harder, in any way, I'm truly sorry." I tell him, feeling my eyes well again. A breath passes and the drips are cascading down my cheeks, again. One day, I would be strong enough to not cry when I felt too much of any emotion.

"I'm sorry I said it like that. Ludociel affected me more than I let on." He admits and I flush as I watch him give a sad, easy smile, the last bite of sandwich pressed in between his lips. "I'll fight for us, Elizabeth. I swear it." He means it, but with his mouth full it warbles and I laugh.

"I'll fight by your side, Meliodas," I tell him, twisting to lean my back against the leg he had open behind me, my head resting on the inside of his knee. "No matter what stands in our way."

We share a long stare, he looks happy. Green eyes aglow and a satisfied smile on. Being like this, relaxed and forgiven, I didn't feel imbalanced at all.

In the distance, I hear a yell. I recognize the tone and sit up from my relaxed position against Meliodas. "Jelamet?" I asked out loud to myself. She came barreling around a building, flying full speed when she spotted me.

"We got the majority!" She yelled, and I took to the sky, meeting her midway to embrace her with a laugh. "It's like... anything you put your mind to, it happens!" She says, smelling like mint and squeezing me against her. My heart soared and we spun in the air, laughing.


	11. All Because of You

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Eleven: All Because of You

My bedroom door opened and I groggily looked at the figure sneaking in at this early hour. "Meliodas?" I muttered and the girly giggle that responded told me just who it was. "Jelamet?" I ask, just as confused.

"So, he's snuck in here before, eh?" She asks, bouncing over to sit on my bed, jostling me.

"What do you want?" I grumble, rubbing at my face.

"Davian asked me to meet him early this morning." She gushes, grinning too happily at this hour. "Come with me to Charity's home, so I can go meet him. The kids will be asleep, at most you'll have to do breakfast. I'll be back before your torrid walk across town." She wiggled her eyebrows and I sat up just to shove at her.

"Fine!" I relent as she giggles, grabbing my blankets to tug them off.

She stays while I dress and I can tell she's still excited about the win we had at the council. For the last week, we've been working with the council to seamlessly integrate ladies. Of course, some women were already doing jobs just not getting credit for them. What surprised me, was the wave of women who joined the war effort. Not as in-camp-healers, but as fighters. Already the troops' numbers were raising and I frowned.

A nervous flame had been licking at my insides since I found that out. Wondering... is that why Ludociel had supported it? Or, was this just an unintended consequence? Most ladies have come to me and Jelamet with praise and wonder. It was just some of the lower-skilled men that seemed put off with it. We had met some disdain I hadn't been expecting, like Ms. Mabel our bitter headmistress.

None of that mattered though, as time went on people would see that more freedom for someone else didn't mean less for them.

The temple was quiet and still when we flew through it, the air outside nipped at me, chilly from morning dew. I should have worn a jacket.

With the streets quiet, we whispered to match the tone around us. Jelamet told me she thinks Davian was so insistent to see her as he and his 'old lady' were separating. "It has to be the policy we changed, I think she wants out now that she had more choices." She's so hopeful and happy, I hope she's always like this and I grip her hand for a squeeze. "It's all because of you," Jelamet says, eyes shining with joy.

"You and Lady Graelle too, it was a joint effort." But she just shook her head, fondly looking across at me.

I dressed, hurrying. We flew across the city and didn't pass a single soul, the streets so quiet from the early hour.

When we signed in, kids were already awake and when one was up it was only a matter of time for the others to follow. Jelamet gave me an apologetic smile while rushing out before any of the kids noticed her. I greeted the morning with the little ones and when they stopped clawing at me, I peeked my head into the kitchen. Emilee was there, in her night clothes and she flushed when seeing me.

"I didn't have time to dress." She explains, "Little Lola was up all night, her fevers have started- early. She's going to be a strong girl." Emilee looks so tired but proud, as she works on whatever she's cooking. "Thank you for always helping out here and because of you and Jelamet, I can raise to be Charity Home's director. You have no idea how worried I was when Old Man Gravins announced his retirement last month."

We talked for some time, I plated and served breakfast, even covering plates for the children still in bed so they wouldn't go hungry. The sun started rising and Jelamet wasn't back, but I wasn't worried yet. When the older kids finished eating, they asked if I'd watch them play hoop ball. A few bragging with little quips of "We've gotten really good!" and "I bet we could beat you."

With no sign of Jelamet, my heart dropped thinking I'd miss Meliodas at this rate. I gave up on her returning in time and went to watch hoop-ball. They had gotten better. I agreed to play against them, the two older kids opposite me on their own team and a few younger kids divided between us. Emilee cheered us on, calling out fouls. The sun was up, the gates would open soon... then I felt him.

Meliodas was here. From his energy, I floundered the ball and it was turned over to Joy and she passed it through the hoop with a woot of excitement for having gotten one over on me. "Good play, Joy," I tell her, grinning at her exuberant face. I call a break, turning to go between this building and the next, down the small alley, as we were in the courtyard of Charity's home.

He stopped, looking over at me and I grin, excited that he found me. Could he feel me, like I felt him? Meliodas met me halfway down the gap between the two buildings. My hopping steps paused as I spotted what was in his arms. A limp, something and he held it up to me, eyes clear and concerned.

"Can you save him?" He asked, "We found him on our way here."

He must have been attacked by another animal. Judging by the look of him. I took the little white puppy in my hands, asking Meliodas to come with me. We walked to the courtyard as I spotted a little pink nose amongst all the blood. With a little glow, the puppy did grow warmer but he was close to the edge, his little chest started to rise higher. The kids stopped their game, coming over to see the poor creature.

"Is it going to die?" I heard little Garret, a patchy haired kid that always got into scraps ask. Emilee sent another kid to get a wash rag with some water to clean him up.

"No, Meliodas found it in time," I reassure, sitting down in the grass and placing the little animal in my lap. With some concentration, I felt the little guy, assessing what I had to fix. A broken bone mended. A ruptured spleen, healed and when I stopped the brain bleed the little guy gave a little 'yip'. The lacerations sealed and when I held his disconnected tail against his spine to heal it, as the body had to be in the right position to heal, the little puppy wiggled it.

"You're amazing." Meliodas praised, in awe and I looked up to meet his smiling eyes. Wishing it could always be like this.

All the kids cheered, asking to hold the little guy and I relented, making sure they knew to be gentle. I watched after the little puppy for a moment, but the children were naturals in their softness, giving him a little bath and laughing at his sneeze.

"You must be Meliodas?" Joy, the dark haired older girl looked him up and down. "Elizabeth talks about you all the time." She says, sounding every bit like the exasperated child she was. I laugh as another kid asks from beside the puppy "Meliodas?" and rushes over.

"Can you do some demon stuff?" The little boy, Garret inquires, always too brave for his own good. Meliodas laughs.

"Oh, absolutely." He agrees, taking my hand. "That game you have set up, that's demon stuff." He says, turning to me and asking "Want to play a game before I have to go?"

I agree, just as the smallest, silver-haired child asked if the puppy could have a blanket. Meliodas grinned, dipping low and when I blinked he was standing nonchalantly by the child. I felt a breeze and looking down, my calf length dress was now cut to above my mid thighs. What?!

"I found this, little one? Is that okay?" I heard Meliodas say, handing the sweet child the fabric of my dress. The little girl looked so enthralled. "Thank you, Sir Meliodas! It's perfect!" and charmingly, she tucked it around the puppy as if it were a sleeping baby. I grew hot, not wanting the kids to see anything indecent if I played our game like this.

Emilee came to my rescue. "Kids, let's find some things to make the puppy a house." Her voice sounded a little alarmed but they listened, seemingly unphased. When the last kid went inside I glared over at Meliodas, who was now tossing the ball from hand to hand.

"First my undergarments and now this." I waved over the jagged, diagonal cut of my dress. It was higher up my thigh on the right.

"Play me for them." He challenges, and to my utter mortification he pulls my old panties from his chest pocket and puts them in between his teeth.

"Meliodas!" I hiss, lunging for the ball and... then we were playing. Just as often as I blocked his shots, I tried to snag my pair of panties, only touching them once. When I got the ball, I ducked, making a point and using my body to my advantage and doing something he didn't expect. Using my own teeth, I bent to snag my panties back. The ball was forgotten as Meliodas grew dark, not in his demon way, but in a devious, serious way.

"Oh... Elizabeth." He purrs, the energy changed from playful to sexual and I didn't know why I grew so warm at my core from just a look. I couldn't help but gasp, looking down at myself in shock as my panties fell from my now open mouth. They never touched the ground.

"H-how did you do that?" I asked, in awe, looking up at him.

"I'm quick." He says, shrugging, obviously referencing the panties he'd grabbed from the air.

"No... your voice made me..." I flush, dropping to a low whisper, honestly curious. A cool breeze of morning air whipped around us, his hair flapping in the wind and I had to hold my own back. As if drawn in, we both stepped forward and in tandem, we met in the middle to kiss.

It was slow and sweet. His hands find my arms, just above my elbows and I fist his vest. The wanting, it burns more intense and I rub my thighs together to ease it. It doesn't help.

"Ahem." A voice interrupts and I pull away immediately. Meliodas takes a deep breath and raises a brow over at the noise that interrupted. I look over, seeing the tall, armored form of the Archangel Mael. He had a comforting arm over the hunched shoulder of my friend Jelamet. She was upset.

"Meliodas, as successor to the evil king himself your attendance is of the utmost importance in these-" Mael starts, seemingly containing his anger with the last of threads of his sanity. What had him so upset?

"Yeah, yeah. No fun, all work." Meliodas interrupts turning to me and winking "pink today, huh?" I'm confused, as he walks over to the door of Charity's home, opens it and yells inside. "Bye kids, take care of Estarossa for me." A slew of 'already leaving?' 'What a good dog name!' and 'come back and play with us!' sounded out after him.

He started walking away, stopped to grin back at me, and I waved a little goodbye. Meliodas goes, passing Mael and I watch him. Jelamet lets out a little sob and I refocus, rushing up to Mael to take my friend from his arms, she reluctantly lets go of him.

"Fraternizing with a demon it can only end badly, Elizabeth." Mael reminded, looking concerned and hurt rather than the anger I'd just seen in him. I didn't know why, but it seemed like he expected something from me and I drew a blank as to what it could be. "He's using you. Demons don't feel like the rest of us." He says as if explaining it to a child.

With my arm around my crying friend, my ire was damped. "You're wrong," I tell Mael, guiding Jelamet away. "Maybe if you actually took the time to get to know a demon, you'd question what you've been told." I don't bother to look back and I feel bad for him. Ludociel had some extreme views, I'm sure Mael had to listen to them all the time and I knew he could rant if he found a tangent to go off about.

Demons were Ludociel's favorite subject.

Inside Charity's Home, I found a cush chair for Jelamet, got her a blanket and made her some tea. Emilee comes over but Jelamet doesn't tell either of us what is troubling her so deeply. She seems broken. We stay all morning, even as lunchtime approaches Jelamet had stopped crying and instead she is stoic, staring and unresponsive. The kids are concerned but with the puppy, they are distracted enough for them to be unaffected.

I take some of the extra food from Charity's home to bring to Meliodas. Food across the city is shared so I knew I wasn't hurting anyone. It was freely given if it was needed. Emilee agreed to keep an eye on Jelamet while I was gone, but I sat at her feet before I left, touching her knee.

"Hey... No matter what happened, we'll handle it together." I tell her, trying to reach her. She looked, gone. Like no life was in her. I'd already checked if there was an ailment, but she was just in shock.

"You should leave that man," Jelamet rasped, her blank face suddenly furious. Her voice stayed low, just for me as she hissed, "A demon and a goddess? Mael's right, giving your heart to someone like him will leave you shattered."

"Jelamet?" I couldn't believe it. She'd never said a word against Meliodas before. "What happened?"

I expected her to soften, to realize what she just said but her expression turned harder. "It's all because of you," Jelamet fumed, eyes shining with resentment. She stood, throwing off the blanket from her shoulders and stormed out, leaving Charity's Home and me behind without a backward glance. Emilee and I shared a confused look. This wasn't like her. Lady Hallen arrived then and Emilee went off to nap since she'd been up most of last night while I headed toward the compound, flying in a daze after some distracted goodbyes to the kids. I left Estarossa in their care.

Jelamet had met Davian this morning, he must not have broken it off with his partner... he must have broken up with her, breaking her heart? It was the most logical guess I came up with. Perhaps she was warning me off of Meliodas as she'd had her heart shattered, and didn't want me to suffer the same fate? My eye filled but I didn't cry, wiping them away before they could fall. Tomorrow I'd bring her some tea and we could talk this through.

Meliodas would know what to do.

I noticed the compound had recently been swept as the falling leaves were gone from the stairs. Since I was early, I took a seat at the topmost step, off to the side of the doors to give the others inside a clear path. Gloxinia and the fairies were out first, followed close behind were the vampires. Neither stayed, it was always just Meliodas that lingered during breaks, to be with me.

Gloxinia comes over, telling me how he had grown fond of Meliodas and Zeldris, and even the Vampire Female, Ren had some funny quips. "This might work, not just outlining the laws of our treaty, but just getting to know one another." Gloxinia gave me hope and I hugged him before he left. The demons hadn't left the meeting yet and I stood, walking over to the door and bending to look in.

Zeldris was strolling out, shoulders back and scowl on. He spotted me and scoffed. I didn't take offense, Meliodas explained that he had been ill-tempered since finding out he'd be separated from Gelda for so long. Cusack is behind him, tall and oozing menace. When he heads in my direction, I stand, smiling. "He is needed to make up for lost time this morning and won't be out to play today. Those arch-asses are rehashing what he's missed."

He said it as if I'm an annoyance that had pestered him for that information but I smile at him. "Thank you for telling me, Zeldris."

Zeldris looks at me, for a long moment before nodding. Maybe accepting that I was with his brother? After Jelamet, I couldn't be sure, I may be looking for acceptance anywhere I could find even a hint of it. He sighs, hand racking through his hair before he says, kinder. "The Giants want the last of the treaty to be finalized with them... There is a discussion of us moving our meetings to their city."

Without a glare, he turns from me, Cusack gave me a sneer but after what Zeldris did I didn't give it much thought. He cared, a little. Meliodas will be happy to hear it. The two didn't always get along, from the stories Meliodas had told me, but I knew they loved one another as usually, the stories Meliodas told ended in laughs or wry grins.

Since no one was around to stop me, I go into the compound and head to the conference room. The door was open just a crack. Ludociel wasn't there, it was Sariel and Tarmiel. He would order someone else to do all the dirty work, keeping Meliodas back and not catching him up on his own. It must be important though, the treaty itself was too important to risk. So, instead, I just put my flowered fabric sack of food beside the door.

I hoped he didn't go hungry.

That evening I knocked on Jelamets door, hoping to get a response, but there was none. Lady Graelle didn't need any help and I was at a loss. My pursuit of equality was complete, the war over and I didn't have anything to fight for anymore. I thought back to my glowing hands and I figured a trip to the theater to play with my new power wouldn't be bad.

The streets were full of dancing goddesses, strings of flowers were flying through the air and I wondered what they were celebrating. I flew over to a sister-in-waiting I knew, who had a loop of flowers she placed on my head as soon as she saw me. "The Treaty is finalized!" She yelled in celebration but my heart stuttered. He wouldn't be allowed in our city anymore. No wonder he had to be caught up, something important must have been decided while we were playing that silly game.

Something he hadn't had the chance to tell me himself.

No one paid me any mind as I snuck behind the old folks home, through the garden and between the gap of the stones. The sun was still up, so I took to flying above the clouds and hopping from one to another in case anyone below happened to be watching. It took longer but I wanted to be alone.

Zeldris had tried to tell me... Meliodas' and I's time is basically up.

With a soft thud, I landed on the stage of the theater. I lay there under the sun to soak in the warm. Since I set out to test my powers, I did. I made an ark bubble, with some umph I spread it to encompass the whole floating island. Bigger than I've ever succeeded in doing before. I strained, holding it as long as possible, telling myself 'if I can keep this together, Meliodas and I have a chance' and power welled.

I felt strong, holding so much raw ark energy and I tried to flow some extra, to make a light sword in my hand. With a gasp I did it, two separate light powers a once but the Ark flickered. I shook the light energy from my palms to reach up and stop the Ark from exploding, breaking it apart and leaking it free. I would hate if I blew the theater away... or if I sonic boomed my location to everyone within a few hundred miles.

Sitting up, I looked at my hands, holy shit. I did two at once. I did an ark and a blade. Using my wings I got to my feet and created two blades, about doubling the length of my arm. I'd seen an archangel's blade span across the sky before. Could I do that? I focused, not sure how to push the power forward. I crossed them, moved as if I was throwing a javelin and even tried saying 'extend' but they stayed. Either I couldn't sort it out or I wasn't that powerful. I couldn't complain. I had more capabilities than I ever had before.

"You've gotten stronger." I flinch, taking to the air as I spin, finding Meliodas at the top of the viewing block, to the left.

I fly forward, too fast as I collide with him but Meliodas doesn't move an inch as he catches me. We're pressed together with all the might I could muster in my arms. "I thought... maybe... with the treaty finalized..." I can't even finish it, tears streaming down my chin already and I press my face into Meliodas' neck. He nuzzles in, I hear him breathe in deeply against my hair, muscled arms pressed me ever closer.

"I'll be away for a few weeks. I'm the chosen representative for the Giants part in the treaty." I twist, pulling back just enough to see him. He looks so hopeful. "After... when it's over, would you like to-"

"Yes!" I say, an excited whisper escaped me. He wanted to be with me, too.

Eyes alight he says, "You didn't know what I was going to ask!" He looks thrilled and then devious "but since you agreed..." He flips up my dresses ruined hem and falls to his knees, putting his face right at my core. I felt myself grow wet.

"Oh!" I grow hot, catching the hem to try and wiggle it between Meliodas' face and my core. That's when I spot it. My underwear is pink. Gah!


	12. Ghosts

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Twelve: Ghosts

Meliodas should be on his way to the Giants clan by now. We'd said our goodbyes with languid kisses. I wasn't sure but I felt like I was getting really good at kissing with my tongue. Practice made perfect. He'd wished, so fiercely that he didn't have to go, or that he could take me with him. "To give you your first adventure," but in the end, the treaty is too important.

Zeldris had called dibs on going home, having been away from Gelda all this time.

With nothing to do, I brought Estarossa with me on the way to Charity's Home. The kids loved that puppy. Emilee asked if they could keep him but I couldn't let the little puppy go. I threw a stick and the little thing could hardly move with how little he was. It was much easier to walk rather than fly when playing with Estarossa. He brought the stick back, I praised the little guy, tugging a few times before he let it go. I wound back, spotting long silver hair flowing among the grass in the field.

Mael? I walked over, carrying my puppy with me. He had a sad aura, as I approached I remembered a time when Mael used to smile. How many years ago was that? A few feet away, I dipped my head in his direction. "Did you fight with your older brother again?" I asked, concerned.

"He goes too far..." Mael stares in the distance, eyes resigned as he turns and spots my new puppy.

"This is Estarossa. Meliodas brought him to me." Mael scowls and I grow hot, remembering his words on the matter. The wind blew around us and I smiled, trying to ease the sudden tension. "Why are you out here?"

"I've been selected to represent the goddesses at Mega Dozer." He says, sighing. "I fear my brother is getting rid of me. He's assigned Nerobasta as my second- I can't stand that insufferable woman." I laugh, thinking of all the times Nerobasta had puppy-eyed Ludociel to a nauseating level. He's probably trying to get rid of her too.

"Wait!" I say, standing straight up. "Take me, instead. I can do all of Nerobasta's duties."

Mael doesn't immediately say no, just stares at me as if calculating a very intense problem. If he decided against it now, he wouldn't change his mind, I had to convince him. "We get along Ninety-five percent of the time." I hold up one of my fingers. "There is a new law that I can take any job offered." I held up a second finger. "With me-"

"You want to go for Meliodas." He sighs, resigned. I was expecting anger but I couldn't tell on his stoic face. "I'm a means to a goal for you."

"Yes... but..." I moved, sitting down a few steps forward, facing him, "Mael, I've never been outside of the goddess territory. This may be my only chance to experience something other than this." I gesture to the city above us, waving my hand in that direction and petting Estarossa with the other.

My heart races. The next few weeks would be exceedingly lonely without Meliodas and Jelamet was still so cold. I didn't have anyone else, outside of Lady Graelle and she was obligated to care about me. My happiness depended on Mael's current whim. He stared me down, then gave a small smile.

"Okay, but you must do as I say. You'll be my second for this and I have expectations." The way he said it, it made me feel like he was tricking me. I didn't want him to change his mind, but I still risked it.

"I'll do anything you need for the job, but orders outside of that I will decide for myself." It sounded reasonable to me and it took a second for him to nod, concise.

"Agreed. I'll speak to Ludociel, we leave at nightfall. Pack for a three-week stay, hot weather. Be prepared to fight as we'll be traveling just the two of us to stay under the radar." Mael stood, looking down at the puppy. "You can't bring that." He demands, walking off.

"Oh!" I get to leave! I get to go on an adventure! Charity's Home would take Estarossa. I had to tell Lady Graelle and Jelamet! There would be no way to tell Meliodas. We parted ways from the theater last night. He thought we'd be separated for weeks when really, it would be a few days!

Everything was sorted over the next hour. Lady Graelle packed me food while I fit everything essential in my backpack. Half my dresses were left behind but they were long sleeved. I tucked the demon coin between my breasts as I didn't have pockets. I wasn't sure if it was sad or not, that I had so little, but as it wasn't important to me, I shrugged.

I was excited, but I paused as I shut my door behind me. I turned toward the cylindrical cathedral of the temple stopping before Jelamet's room. I knocked, nervous. Would she answer this time? This coldness between us hurt and I felt lost without someone to confide in. I was used to her being at my side, daily.

The door swung open and there was the gorgeous Jelamet. She'd cut her hair. The dark rings under her eyes were gone. She must be done crying. Hope swelled.

"I'm sorry about Davian." I tell her, oozing all my love for her in my voice as best I could. "I have news, I'm going to help Mael with the treaty finalization with the giants." I wanted anything other than the continued scorn she showed me, but that's what I got.

"Oh, moving on to Mael now? At least you lost that filthy demon." She scowls.

"I'm not... I'm still with Meliodas." I tell her, feeling my face burn, but I don't have any anger for her. She's sad and taking it out on me. I continue to fill the silence. "I'll be gone for three weeks, or around that long-"

"It doesn't matter. I won't be here when you get back." Oh? She looks at me as if I'm nothing, she could take me or leave me. I want to ask her why she won't be here but the door slammed in my face. I look at the carved wood, putting my palm on the front of it as if that would reach her. Maybe I shouldn't go, if she ever needed me, it was now.

But she wouldn't let me in and if she was leaving there wasn't a reason for me to stay without her. Maybe she just needed to separate herself from all of this, too? Somehow I lost one of the most important people to me because of Davian? I couldn't look at her door anymore and went down the hall to find Lady Graelle.

With the food sack about half the size of my clothing sack, it was very manageable. Already I felt like my adventuring skill of 'traveling light' would be a big positive. Lady Graelle gave me a long hug, telling me it was about time I got out of here and saw the world. I grew hot, wishing it was Meliodas I was heading out with.

That would be exceedingly harder when the treaty is over. We were in different clans. Ones in a very new and very shaky truce.

She escorted me to the compound and there, Emilee and all the children, along with little puppy Estarossa were there to wave me off. I didn't go inside, instead choosing to be with the people I loved until the last moment. With this being so last minute, no one else knew about me leaving with Mael. The kids promised to take care of the puppy and Emilee promised to take care of the kids. We laughed, hugged and said our goodbyes when Mael and Loduciel came out.

Mael smiled at me, and Ludociel looked pleased as well. They made their way down, gliding over the steps but both were in full armor. I didn't have any fancy armor, but my jacket would be fine as I would always use everything I had to prevent a fight. Armor might give the wrong impression.

I guess an Archangel would have to give that impression.

The horses were waiting for us, below the city. Angels were there, holding them in place. Ludociel escorted the two of us to them, telling me "With Mael you'll learn how a woman is supposed to be treated. Do pay attention." He'd looked down at me and I couldn't help but feel irked as I knew he was thinking of Meliodas in a negative light.

I situated my sacks to the black pony, getting acquainted with the animal that would be carrying me so far. The other horse was brown and already saddled with baggage. Ludociel gave Mael something, a sheet of paper with some kind of diagram drawing with scrawled notes. Mael folded it, going to his horse and shoving the paper into his bag. I mounted my horse flying up to gentle myself down on the back of the black beauty.

Thankfully I wore my tights under my dress. My blanket padded my butt and thighs and I hoped being in the saddle didn't dissipate Meliodas' scent. We were off soon after, Ludociel waving and I hummed with excited energy. Mael could tell, actually smiling and I had forgotten how handsome he looked with happiness on his face.

I had this imagined view of the world, that passed our goddess territories everything would be different. Mael let me know when we crossed the threshold and I was very disappointed when the forest continued on as if it didn't know it was suddenly supposed to be someplace new. I felt silly, looking around and realizing all the lines drawn on the map, they only meant anything to the people that looked at them.

We made the lines, we fought wars over these lines... it felt so stupid.

I felt like flying up, to see if from above. Just to check if there was something that indicated from up high that a line existed, but I doubted it. Traveling with Mael wasn't bad. He didn't needlessly talk, so most of what he said was terse 'This is the village of such-and-such, we won't be stopping' and occasionally he would ask 'Throw me something to eat.' I wanted to stop and look at so many things but Mael seemed intent on our destination and I didn't want to hinder him after he agreed to take me with him.

I was intrigued by the temples to different gods. Homes made of mud. Farmers children who played at sword fighting with sticks in their hands. Even a field of tulips made me want to run through it, my fingers trailing the petals but Mael kept our pace unrelenting. Our horses were war horses, strong and muscled, so it seemed it was only me that wanted a break.

Every hour I've had to heal my aching muscles. My thighs were not used to so many hours in a saddle. Mael called out that we were stopping soon, the sun was high, about midday and after traveling all night I was exceedingly tired. I didn't complain and as we approached a wide, stone-laden village Mael told me "We've made excellent time. Distance wise we are about half way there but it gets rough here on out. Barbarians and harder terrain await us. This is our first destination."

Mael traded some gems, a red and a few greens for a stay in a barn. We stabled our horses and opening a few of the bales of hay, Mael laid a blanket out over the stuff. "We'll sleep here. Outside of finding a farmer to take us in, there isn't an inn so this is probably the best we can do." Mael looked around, decided with a small nod that this was good enough and started removing his armor. "Don't be afraid, I won't leave your side. I'm sure this is unfamiliar and with your first time away from home..."

I grew hot, thinking of Meliodas. We had agreed to only be with each other. Did sleeping next to another male count? I felt like it was wrong, so it must be. I hadn't brought a bedroll, so my options were at Mael's side or the stables dirty floor. I knew which way I was leaning. I didn't want to offend Mael so simply said,

"I've never slept beside a man before," I confess. "I think I'll just curl up over here." I point to the corner as Mael stills as if processing my words slowly. Frozen in stone, midway from undoing his shin guards, I frown. Was it that strange? The closest I'd ever gotten was when Meliodas had snuck into my room after my fever not so long ago.

"No, take the hay. Go to sleep, I need to, uh. I'll be outside so you can change." He rattles as he walks from part of his armor being unsecured and he leaves the barn. I don't change into my night clothes, instead, I removed my dirty clothes and put on tomorrow's outfit. Pants and a wrap shirt that covered my butt if I didn't move too much. I pulled the blanket from Black Beauties saddle and wrapped it around me, accepting the Hay bed.

I was exhausted and even with the pokes of the hay through the blanket, in a matter of minutes, I was lost to the world.

The lightest of flutter woke me. Like a feather brushed the side of my mouth and cheek and I groggily opened my eyes, taking a moment to realize just where I am. It was dark, night had fallen and I wondered how long I'd slept. It didn't feel like long. I rubbed at my face to see Mael, fully armored once more.

"Oh." He was ready to go. Was I holding him up? I stood, brushing off the flecks of hay and dust from my clothes and then from our blankets. I folded his, handing it to him and situating my own over Black Beauty. I made sure to feed her up, then give her more water before I paused, looking under my horse. Not a girl. Definitely a boy. Still a Black Beauty though.

We headed out, under the cover of the night again. Mael told me he wanted to fly under the radar as there would be far fewer people traveling in the dark because of the danger. That 'he could handle anything coming our way, so not to worry'. I wasn't, mostly because I didn't know what I had to be afraid of.

What could be worse than the wars I'd seen? The fatal wounds I'd healed... Beasts? Monsters?

I'd seen Angels kill unconscious fighters, going for the easy picks, the youngest of the warriors in battle. What could be worse than people barely old enough to be in the fight, kill each other? Mael on the battlefield was something to fear, so outside of a being equal to him- which I'd only ever heard Meliodas could meet him blow for blow, what could possibly be dangerous to us? There would be no need to fight, to kill, as we could easily escape. Everyone and everything had a reason for what they were doing.

The night made everything a few feet out from the path look like shadowed silhouettes. I could make out the shapes of mountains as we rode past, some farms and open dirty fields but nothing appealed to me. I wanted to see the cliffs and the vast ocean but as we traveled I could only smell it, hear the distant echo of the waves crashing.

"Can we see it?" I request, turning to identify anything but the darkness swallowed it all.

"The coast is crawling with bandits this time of night." He responded. I'd been riding beside him, more because he gave off so much heat and the air was chilly, but I frowned and let Black Beauty fall in pace behind. It's okay. I would spend weeks at Megadozer. An entire city to explore. I had witnessed giants in battle before and I wondered how different they would be as friends.

We traveled into the day, I had taken to healing my thighs hourly again. Rejuvenating Black Beauty with invigorate rather than the 'breath of bless' that Mael used on his warhorse. That poor animal will be exhausted when he finally got to rest. I guess though, Mael wouldn't want to deplete his own magic for a horse.

Right before nightfall, we stopped. "Necropolis- The city of the dead," Mael explained and I wearily gripped my horses' reigns.

The dead? As in... ghosts? My insides turned. Why couldn't we have stopped literally anywhere else? I'd risk the bandits over the dead. We found an inn and tavern, paying in gems again. The horses were left in their barn, a nice, clean room with hay and I was surprised our horses were the only ones in the place. The bar "Krusty's Inn and Tavern" was run down, loud and rowdy people were drinking and singing. The owner told us our room is above us with a single bed and Mael again, offered it to me as we made our way across the room and up the stairs.

The town was bigger than any we'd been in before but I didn't bother asking to be shown around so I blandly followed. People were friendly in the bar, waving at me and Mael grabbed my wrist to stop me from waving back, glaring at the lot of them. The red-faced men were drunk, laughing at us and I flushed, realizing that they probably thought I was with Mael to... couple.

Mael made sure I was situated in the dingy, dark room and left, again. I heard him downstairs with the other loud voices, and the sound did calm me. He hadn't abandoned me in this place. The only thing in the room was a bed, a window overlooked the little path between the horses' barn and this tavern. A knock sounded at my door and I opened it to see a little girl, with a rag and a basin of water. Oh, a bath.

"Thank you," I tell the girl. "Would you like an apple?" The girl looked thrilled but she didn't come into my room. I went to my bag, pulling out the reddest apple I had, to give to her. With a little fear I asked, "This isn't really, the city of the dead, right?" She took the fruit, shining it on her dirty smock.

"Oh, yesh." She said, "The dead cross to the other side, just over there." She pointed, thankfully in the direction opposite of my window.

"You see the dead? Like ghosts?" I don't want to know... I don't know why I asked and she looks at me, wide-eyed and confused.

"You never saw one before?" As if every day it was normal for her to be haunted. I balked. "They can't hurt you, not unless you let them." She stares at my face as if I were silly, before making her excuse to get back to work.

I washed from the basin and changed into another set of clothes. At least I hadn't asked if this place in particular had a resident ghost. I didn't want to know! But without the reassurance that it wasn't, I was afraid.

The dead crossed over here? How do I not let a ghost hurt me? The night dragged on and even as tired as I was, I couldn't sleep. The shadows from the single candle lit in here all drove my anxiety up higher and higher. It was drafty and I searched the walls for a crack or a reason for the breeze but I found nothing, making me imagine all kinds of wild explanations.

I wanted Mael here. Not for him in particular but just not to be alone. The noise downstairs is non-existent. The moon is high when the candle in my room snuffed out, I pulled my blanket up high on myself, curled up on the bed with eyes wide. How did the light go out? There must be a ghost here!

The door's lock clicks and slowly creeps open with a long groan. Oh. god. I never got to tell Meliodas how I felt! My life flashed before my eyes and it was such a short flash of events I bit my lip in fear. A large silhouette came into the room, his armored feet clanking and I sighed as I spotted the goddess insignia on his chest. Mael. I let out my breath in relief, but then I caught a whiff of the smell coming off him.

Bitter fruit? No, alcohol. Mael was drunk? He sagged, in his full armor against the far wall, head sagging forward, one knee up and arms flopped to the side. Oh. I got up, making sure he was alright. He'd left the door open and I caught sight of more shadows, human in shape and when I looked down the hall no one was there. My heart skipped a beat. Mael would be useless in this state. With a heavy feeling in my gut, I went back to the bed, pulling the blanket off to put over Mael as there would be no way to lift him to the bed.

I grabbed my bag and blanket, tucking them close as I shut the door behind me. Down the stairs no one was awake. Men passed out on the tables they'd been drinking at and I left the tavern. I headed toward the barn, looking back, across the way to where the girl said the dead crossed over. The moon did seem to glow there, the flowers all bloomed in the night. I shook, running faster to get inside the barn.

Mael's horse didn't rouse. He would be exhausted but Black Beauty opened his dark eyes, moving his big head to get a better look at me. I closed up the barn, going to his stall and shutting me in with my powerful horse. I felt better, with my blanket and bag tucked around me, I leaned against the warm chest of Black Beauty, telling him all my worries.

Against the steady rise and fall of his torso, clenching Meliodas demon coin in my fist, I fell asleep. Every noise and every creak I would open my eyes, wearily looking around but with my horse at my side, I would ease back into sleep.

Again, I woke to a soft sensation on my mouth. A ghost? I frowned, sitting up to see Mael outside the stable, holding the door open.

"You must have woke up early to pack up your horse and fell asleep." He teased and I rubbed my face, surprised we were setting off during the day. Black Beauty was awake, looking at me from the side of his big face. He flopped his ear at me and I scratched him there.

"Yeah, I must have." I yawned, not wanting him to know how scared I'd been. Ghosts were terrifying. We set up soon after, Mael must have healed himself of his hangover as he was back to his regular stoic self.

Under the sun I watched the rocky terrain change to woodland. We traveled for a few hours, only talking a few times about things back home. I saw deer running and birds flying but nothing I hadn't seen before. We were finally travelling in the daylight when all you could see were trees. Nothing seemed to be working in my favor on this journey but I was happy just going toward Meliodas. Mael halted unexpectedly and I reigned in Black Beauty just in time to avoid me and Mael from bumping legs.

He was tense, sitting up in his saddle and from his aggression, I grew nervous. Then I heard it, the rustling of fabric, quiet and fast. Someone, no a group of someone's, was coming. In a rush, we were surrounded. Six men, all in ramshackle pieces of armor and old rusty weapons. I could tell right away they were scavengers, people with very little, and from their matted hair, probably living in the woods.

If they were hungry, I had seeds from all the fruits I had eaten so far. I saved them in the lining of my bag for emergencies.

"I'm Eliz-" I say, looking at the man to my left, closest to me, when suddenly he fell forward to his knees, blood spraying out his throat up in an arch across me. A throaty long "glaahhh" escaped his ruined neck. Black Beauty shook her mane, pawing at the dirt as if she wanted to fight. "No!" I shout, jumping down from the aggressive horse to catch the man before he fell.

I heaved to lower him to the dirt gently, touching him to try and save him but it was too late. He'd bled out in seconds. What happened? I looked around, expecting shocked and horrified faces but they too were all fallen. Blood pooling under each body. "No," I lamented, finding Mael, wiping his blade clean and giving a winning smile that clearly portrayed how well he thought he did. Until he saw me kneeling in the man's blood.

"They came to attack us. Probably for the horse meat." He explained tersely, sheathing his blade.

"Couldn't you have just scared them away... or, I could have-" I bewailed, but Mael doesn't let me finish.

"You don't know the way of the world, Elizabeth. Out here, it's kill or be killed." Mael used his wings to mount his horse and ordered me to leave the man.

"I don't believe that!" I exclaimed, eyes welling at his viciousness. They hadn't said anything, had just popped out, none of them had even made a move yet. "You are powerful enough to give mercy and you don't!" He looks surprised at my words as if he never considered mercy to be something the powerful did.

It was useless crying over the fallen, but I did. In a daze I took to the air with heavy wings, flying myself atop Black Beauty. The beast calmed with my weight over his back but I couldn't bring myself to pat him. I tried to stop crying, but all I managed was to do it silently.

"Pull yourself together," Mael commanded, with an edge of gentle. "You are soft to the world, I understand but we are nearing our destination." I straightened, healing my thighs and swiping my face clear, the blood coming off with my tears. I didn't speak to him, not trusting myself to say anything nice.

The woodlands stopped. A sudden cut from growth to trampled ground. It was dry, sand and earth in a large circle surrounding a massive mountain-sized stack of cube rocks. Even seeing the giant-made structure in all its glory, the tears fell. I stared, stopping to get a view of the vast openness of Megadozer. With the sun in the sky, I got at least one experience I could be happy about.

A new city and hopefully a few minutes away from Mael.

If watching warriors die hadn't hardened me, this wouldn't either. I reinvigorated my horse, expecting him to have to climb up that rocky mountain of stone. Crossing the hot open earth made the sun feel even more powerful. We were nearing the massive hammer shaped top to the city when the very bottom of the stone parted as if the stone were a curtain. Two giants stepped out from the gap, greeting the two of us.

"You have faced battle." The one giant boomed, looking at my blood-soaked and splattered dress. "What a grand entrance, bathed in the blood of those fallen, high off the victory." Somehow, with arriving in such disarray, I'd gained the respect of these greeting giants. They met us out in the open, turning to walk beside Mael's horse on either side.

They were both very tall, around thirty feet. The one on the right of Mael was a man, his groin the only thing covered with a wrapped cloth and a jagged scar he wore proudly across his bare muscled chest. The women had both her breasts and her hips wrapped in a similar material. Her hair was cut very short, around her ears.

I averted my gaze, looking down as the Giants took slow steps to keep pace with the horses between them. The tears streamed but just as I flipped my heels to get Black Beauty to go, I sensed Meliodas and froze. He was up, up high. With wide, teary eyes I scanned the very highest point of the flat top cube and from such a distance I could only make out his outline. With a smile, I felt my heart lift and I swiped at my eyes with my forearm. He waved. Black Beauty followed the giants all of us headed toward Meliodas.

To be with him, I could face anything.


	13. A Tasting

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Thirteen: A Tasting

The entire inside of the city felt like its own world from how gigantic it felt. I'd never been this small before. It felt like a cave, the walls dividing one room from the next were rough shaped stone. The two giants showed us where to leave our horses, a few others neighed, already hooked to a stall right inside the entrance of that massive dome with stalactites on the ceiling.

Mael and I flew, going high up to stay at the giant's eye level as being underfoot didn't seem like a smart thing.

Nothing was my size. Chairs were bigger than our buildings. The dining hall alone had a table longer than the entire expanse of our main road back home. I was in awe, the amount of undress, open flesh and when we pass an open cave I looked in from the strange noises within. The man was mounting the woman, huge trusts and she was... "Oh!" I grew hot, flying away in a rush to catch up to the others.

Giants weren't shy. Got it. The first male shaft I'd ever seen and it was giant. Literally. I must look shell-shocked as Mael politely asks to be seen to our quarters after spotting me.

"Drole is just up ahead, we made a whole wall of rooms for you lot." The male giant with the scar said.

"Miniature everything." The woman said, her hand coming up to brush her short hair back, although nothing was there to pull. With her movement, the underswell of her breast peaked out from under her wraps.

Another room opened to a big wide training room. Giants were congregated here. A group was tanning some leather. Others exchanging blows, a group beyond them were completely encased in metal but at the center, the biggest giant I had ever seen, stood. He was blue and on either side, he had two arms under his shoulder, four in total. He had long brown hair and greeted us firmly while in the midst of bringing another male giant into submission.

"Hello, Goddesses and welcome to Megadozer. If you need anything you are to ask Hya." He motioned to the short haired lady giant, and she nodded as if just now accepting the job. "Food. Water. Battle. Whatever you require. Not all have arrived, directions will be given when that requirement is met." With that he turned back to his task, another giant passing out under his second arm on his right side.

Woah. The body dropped from Drole's grasp and the floor rumbled but didn't move. If I felt small before I didn't have a way to quantify what I felt now.

Hya led us out, back through the dining hall and down another cave chamber to a wall of holes. She explained this is where we would be staying. Mael told me to find a room and I flushed realizing there would be no door. When Mael flew high, I dropped low, thinking it much less likely for a giant to peek in if I was at their ankle level.

I picked the bottom right pod, dropping in to see that even this 'miniature' room was too big. Everything was made of stone and I smiled humorously. The bed was a rectangle relief of stone, a bedroll had been tossed in, half against the wall. A desk was there, crudely shaped from stone with a round stool jutting just before it, all connected to the base stone. I guess that's all you need.

My first order of business was grabbing the bedroll, too small to cover the whole of the stone rectangle, but I did my best. I placed my bag on the top when I heard steps land and echo inside my cave. With sagging shoulders, I looked to see Mael there. He studied the place before settling on me, quick.

"I thought you'd want to stay close to me." Mael said, "Flying is to our advantage."

"I didn't want anyone to be able to see in," I tell him. "Here I'm above those who walk on the ground and below those with eyes twenty feet up." He nods, accepting my explanation. I refuse to look at him, gripping my fists around the hem of my bloodied dress. "I'm going to get better acquainted with Drole and the giants. Rest. You'll get over-"

Another jumps up, their shoes tapping on the stone silently.

"Hya Mael. Drole's in the training room, have fun." He says, cheerily and I feel my shoulders deflate. My fingers loosened but I didn't release my fists. I still didn't look up.

"Lady Elizabeth needs to rest," Mael commanded, his tone of someone used to being obeyed.

"Absolutely. Just came to say hi, I myself was just mingling with the giant's leaders. Already friends with a few." Meliodas quips, nonchalant. He walks into the cave, making himself comfortable on the end of my bed and sitting on the stone there. Meliodas leans in my direction, concern etched on his face as he looks over me as I peer through my bangs.

"It's fine, Mael. You have duties." I tell him. If he stayed now, it would get uncomfortable and Mael and I were in a bad place. He knew that. Having Meliodas beside me didn't erase the guilt and frustration at having death follow me here, but I felt lighter.

Mael says some stilted kind words, taking a long time to turn and go, but I barely hear him reassure me that he would be close enough to hear me yell. As Mael took to the sky, jumping from the floor, I let go of my dress.

"Whose blood is this, Elizabeth?" Meliodas demands, his rugged fingers brushing across the marks, standing before me. We were alone. His hand tilted my head up, examining me, thumbs wiping at my cheeks.

"Don't worry," I tell him, smiling down at Meliodas. "None of its mine." But my eyes burn with unshed tears, thinking of those poor people. I tell Meliodas in soft whispers what happened. They hadn't even spoken yet, what if they wanted assistance? How can anyone kill without knowing for sure they were in danger? It's different than killing in a war, it wasn't even out of necessity.

Maybe I am too soft for the world?

"No. Mercy isn't a weakness." He assured, holding my hands between us and looking up at me with endless green depths. "Far from it. You're flawless. Sometimes, you're so pure... I have to touch you just to make sure you're real." Oh. I feel like a weight is lifted, like the flaws Mael saw meant nothing because Meliodas didn't see them the same way.

I pull my hands free to grab the back of his head and press his face to my chest. His hands waste no time, palming my behind while groaning, nuzzling between my breast. "I've missed you and getting to see you, that alone was worth the journey." I realize I'm pretty filthy and try to step away, but Meliodas keeps me pressed against him.

"You're the most pleasant of surprises, Elizabeth." Hands trailing up my dress to feel the bare skin at my back from the opening there for my wings. "I thought I'd be without you for weeks, so, please, just a little longer." He requests, his chin lifting to rub his nose up my neck. I arch as he kisses me there. There was no resistance in me, elated and feeling so much better with Meliodas at my side I thought 'I could stay like this forever.'

Hya showed me the baths after Meliodas left. They were massive and giants were not shy. Water trickled from the rock walls and I washed my hair and body with my clothes on, flying up high so not to be noticed. There were two other giant ladies here, sitting in the deep pool that gathered the water falling from all around us. It was honestly beautiful.

By evening the Fairies had arrived. We were served steamed pig and with the Fairies only ever eating plants it was a strange experience. Of the six of us, Mael and Chandler were the grumps. Neither of them partook in our talk over food. I hadn't had meat in a long while and it sat heavy so I didn't eat much.

That first night, the fire glowing in the main chambers didn't reach my little cave. I shivered under my blanket. Large shadows passed by every so often and when I finally had enough, shivering on my own I wrapped my blankets around my waist, pulling it to cover my front and slowly glided up and over to a pod in the middle. Meliodas was sprawled out on his cot but lifted his head either not yet asleep or even in sleep could sense an intruder.

"It's too cold," I whisper and he grins, opening his arms and scooting over. He wasn't even using his blanket but he grabbed the end of it now. I slipped in, spreading my blanket over the two of us as he throws his over mine. I snuggled down, his arm under my head as I wiggled to be pressed against him. My cold fingers touched his chest and he shivered.

"Awe," he says, a little sadness in his voice, "it wasn't an excuse." I smile, kissing the skin at his arm.

"I was cold." I admit, "but I wanted to be with you." I hush my admittance, hiding my face against him as he turns on his side, wrapping his other arm around me and resting at my lower back. My wings stretch out over us and I feel that wanting again, that pulsing at my core but bite it back. After traveling for the last three days and the horrible sleep I had at the Necropolis, in Meliodas' arms, I drifted right off to sleep.

That morning it was Mael's voice that woke me. "Elizabeth?" Mael called out to me, from below, probably from my room. I sat up, alarmed as Meliodas grins like the demon he was. "Where did she get off too?" He asked and Hya answered that she hadn't seen anyone leave. Meliodas ducked out from the covers, in just his pants. He stopped at the opening and looked down.

"Did you lose her already?" Meliodas asked. Oh shit, if he flew up here he would see me. I would be in so much trouble. He might even send me back! I really did have a duty to Mael. The Goddess Clan was relying on me to assist our representative. "If I had a guess, she's washing that luscious body of hers. Just imagining the suds on those curves." He smacked his lips and I heard Mael scoff.

"She's innocent, Demon. Have some respect." Mael calls out.

"Hmmm. I would worship her with all the respect I could muster if she let me taste her sweet silken skin." He stood, "maybe I'll go find her." Meliodas challenges, stretching his arms and then his legs as if he were about to partake in a race. Whatever Mael did below, made Meliodas laugh heartily before lazily coming back towards me.

"How about it, can I taste that silken skin to make my morning?" He whispers, stopping at the end of the rock slab to crawl up, moving on all fours over my legs. My wings folded and unfolded behind me until I forced them to still. Meliodas was slightly over me, leaning back to be on his knees, straddling my thighs and I'm reminded of when he'd snuck in my room. In a rush, his blanket was out from underneath him and spread wide like wings, blocking me from the entrance of his room just as over his right eye the mark of the demon appeared. His darkness expanded out, a bubble that formed around the cave walls and closing over the entrance in a snap.

"Master!" Chandler exclaimed. I heard him smack against the barrier before it seemed to close in, getting thicker and a slippery feeling spread over me. I felt cold and I reached forward, pressing a hand over Meliodas' chest.

"Yes please," I answer him in a soft breath. The dress I'd slept in had bunched around my waist and with Meliodas' dark, uncomprehending look, I reach up to my own shoulders and pull the straps of my dress down over them to fall and expose myself from the waist up to him. "Taste," I tell him, scared and eager for a variety of reasons. His demon mark stays but the black leaks out, leaving solid dark green but his slow smile is all devious demon.

He leans forward, going for my lips, rather than where I expected and his fingers play. I get lost in his kiss, touching his chest tentatively at first before he takes my hand and presses mine harder. I moan into his mouth and he smiles against me. He grips my hips and with a firm yank, I fall back on the mat. The black tendrils spreading from his hands to touch me up across my hip and down towards my core.

"Uhh!" I gasped, just as Meliodas removes his hands and shakes the darkness from them, looking down. His messy hair covers his expression. I don't have time to tell him it was a pleasant feeling, as he bends and breaths a long, soft breath across my nipple. "Ohhh." I instinctively move to cover them up but he catches my hands, holding them to his chest and out of the way.

"It would be a sin to cover these, Elizabeth." He blew another breath over my other nipple and it peaked for him without a touch. "How you live with yourself day after day, hiding these beauties is beyond me." I can't process his words as he licks his lips and with a quick look up to meet my eyes, he trails his tongue from the bottom swell of my breast, up over my nipples and to my collarbone.

"M-Mel." I breathed, wide-eyed and staring at the inky blackness that's overhead. He moved to my other breast, repeating the process over again and my mind picked up where I left off "io-das." I panted, making my chest heave and I struggled to get free of his grasp. Instead of releasing me, he moved my hands for me, spanning across his rippling chest.

I arched, my body asking for more. His mouth hovered a centimeter from my nipple, his tongue flicking out up and down and over and around. The blackness echoes my noises, keeping them in but making it sound like a handful of me's were here, panting a disjointed version of his name. My body ached, my slit growing wet and I rubbed my thighs together to ease the tension building. I was climbing toward... something? His breath worked in tandem with his tongues rhythm before he switched to my other nipple, giving the same punishing attention to the poor peak.

His hands moved mine lower, over the hard rigid lines of his shaft, over his pants. He groaned. I could feel the sound against my nipple and I wrapped my fingers as much as his pants would allow around the hardness there. He released my hands, his own finding my ribs, thumbs moving over the swell of my breasts before he unhurriedly gliding down my tummy, over my belly button. Just as the tips of his fingers dipped into my waistband I stopped my stroking, my hands covering my breasts in a sudden rush of vulnerability.

Meliodas paused, looking at me with dark black eyes that wavered between green to black again. In a sudden flood of energy, he flung himself from me, a whirlwind whipping the blankets and my hair in a chaotic spin from the force of it. He looked utterly terrified but his eyes shone a clear emerald green as his back hits his own darkness at the entrance of his cave. "Elizabeth!" He exclaimed, panic in his tone. "I went to far- I shouldn't have- Did I hurt you?"

"No." I tell him, sitting up. "No, I only felt good." He looked a breath away from running and I reach for him. He's weary as I stand. I walk to him slowly as if approaching a hurt wild animal. With hands reaching out, he seems powerless to resist and steps into them as we collapse together. "I'm sorry I got nervous... it's just new."

He's silent as I hold him against my chest but slowly, his arm curls around my back. "Honest?" his question sounds more like the Meliodas I knew and I smiled.

"That was part of our deal, wasn't it? I'd always tell you how something feels." I grew hot but took a steady breath. "Your dark wisps feel like velvet tickles. Your, uh, tongue on me, it, uh... I felt like you were leading my body to something inside me."

He gave a deep, hearty laugh as he pulled away from my chest to look me over. I smiled, still hot in the face. A huge boom sounded on just the other side of Meliodas' darkness bubble and his green eyes flickered to black so fast it was like he was blinking. He pulled the dress bunched around my hips up, I helped him get them over my arm and he kissed me, so sweetly, his lips to mine.

"I'm glad I didn't ruin us." He proclaimed, standing and looking down at me on the floor, asking "Did you know you're glowing?' I look myself over, a glow worm in his darkness. I giggle as his energy leaks from around me, fading from the walls. He winks at me, facing toward the shell he created and just as a boom echoes another time, he smashes his fist through it and connects hard with whatever was on the other side.

He strolls back, pulling a shirt from his bag and covering his arms but not buttoning the length of it. "If you don't want to see me naked, you should turn away." I yelp as he goes for the tie at his pants and they fall to the floor. My face is buried in my hands but not before I saw just a second of his hard manhood. Oh gosh. The second one I'd ever seen and the first was only yesterday!

Curious, I peeked through my fingers but he had a new pair on and he was fiddling with the tie, a chuckle of 'nish nish' sounds from him.

"You're brave." He admires, his eyes so soft they were liquid green. "I think you're the only person to face my demon and not run, or scream. You told it- well, me, to taste." With steady steps, he came to offer me a hand and I take it, happy to have Meliodas back. He kissed my hand, melting me on the inside. "I have to get you back now." He regrets, the only warning I got before I was in his arms, breaking free from the black bubble and deposited into my own room. With a soft kiss to my lips, he was gone.

"If you ever pull that stunt again, I will eviscerate you." Meliodas' dark demon voice rang out in the chamber outside.

"Master Meliodas," Chandler whined, sounding weary. That man was afraid of him? I had been intimidated but I trusted Meliodas.

Quickly, I straightened myself up. Mael had been looking for me and I frowned. He should have given me a better rundown of what I was required to do other than 'assist me in what I need'. Not one to wait around, I flew off to visit Black Beauty. Another set of horses were there, almost a full stable so one of the other clans must have arrived. Either the vampires or humans.

Mael found me an hour later, just finishing up. I grow nervous but he seems relieved to see me. "Until we get better acquainted with the safety of the giant's clan, don't go wandering off. I'll find you each morning." He looks over the horses, all fed and watered. I even braided Black Beauties Mane but Mael doesn't say anything.

"What is it I'm expected to do?" I ask, flying with him as he shows me the places he's discovered and how the Giants do some things.

"I'll need a few things done throughout the day."

The list of things is surprising. I was to do his laundry, which hadn't crossed my mind until now. Take notes for him after each meeting for a detailed record and I was to gather my own information about the other clans while I was with them. Not just about the treaty, but anything that could be used. "Even if you find out that the Fairies have a pet pig- you must report it. Ludociel always finds a way to incorporate information into formidable plans."

"I'm not a very good spy," I tell him, thinking of all the things Meliodas had shared with me that I would never tell.

"It's not spying, it's simply sharing what was shared with you. Even using Meliodas' infatuation against him would be helpful to our cause." Mael explained, but I didn't understand how anything he had shared with me could help us keep the peace we already established. Mael then asked me something strange. "I need to find a giant by the name of Dabuzu. If you could ask around, you make friends so quickly I know it will be easy for you."

Mael leads us back to the wall of caves, I was hoping to be free to try and find a way to the top of this mountain. I bet the view would go on forever. Meliodas had found a way, but Mael simply brought down his dirty clothes and told me 'I already showed you where the Giants do their washing'.

He seemed to be dismissing me, even though he had come to me. I gathered my own dirty items and did make my way to the bathing room. The far wall had a trickling corner and I used that. Who knew my skill set would be used for clothing. I wrung each item out as best I could, folding them before using this as an excuse to find a way to the top of the mountain. Where else would I dry these? A few other places came to mind, like by the fire, but my excuse seems solid for if anyone asked what I was doing.

After circling the same route twice, I broke down and asked for directions, making friends with a portly girl on her way to 'the nursery'. I followed her directions and when I found my way out, the light was blinding. I'd been inside the stone walls for so long. As my eyesight returned, I overlooked the world from up here and couldn't believe how different the world looked.

The snow-tipped mountains looked like the size of my thumb, the trees blanketed the world in green and even the Fairy's forest, which I knew the general location of, glinted under the suns rays making the whole world look shiny. I stared, seeming to find something new to marvel at with each turn.

On top of this flat-topped city, I found enough rocks, pebbles to the giants in comparison, to lay all our wet clothes out to dry. With the sun beating down on the dark stone it wouldn't take too long. The air felt clean up here and being out in the open like this, as if I were on the very top of the world, made me want to stay here until nightfall. I sat on the edge.

I wasn't sure how long I sat out here before Meliodas joined me. He didn't say a word, threw his legs over the ledge with mine and took my hand, a peaceful quiet between us. We watched the world together.


	14. Trust

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Fourteen: Trust

Meliodas took to sneaking in my room each night after everyone's gone to sleep and sneaking out before anyone wakes. After his demon struggled to take control, sparked by Chandlers attacking, Meliodas had kept our time together very sweet. Innocent.

Mael kept me pretty busy once the meetings started. He liked extensive notes, I think it was to keep me from Meliodas as long as possible but I was just so happy to be close to Meliodas, it didn't matter. Sleeping beside him, with his tender embrace and soft serene kisses, it warmed long dormant places inside me.

We didn't explore anymore and to be honest, I missed it.

I reassured Meliodas, even joking that his demon liked me so he shouldn't worry so much, but he never relented. When he asked if I was upset, I told him "I just want to be with you." He had gone all gooey, lazy grinning. One that didn't fade even after he fell asleep. That night though, I wondered, being with Meliodas like this, how could it last? After the last bit of treaty is finalized we would return to our separate clans.

The fighting was over but Meliodas had a responsibility as demon prince. I could have a similar position among my own people if I lived through my fevers. I knew it was foolish to fall for Meliodas but I felt like he could do anything. He'd stopped the war, giving us what we have now. "You're my hope," I tell Meliodas' sleeping face, snuggling closer and his fingers at my back spread out slightly.

Although I wasn't permitted inside the Giants war room, it was only the representative of each clan in the meeting, I knew what was going on. My note duties wouldn't take so much of my free time if I'd been allowed inside but it gave me time to find Dabuzu, make friends and learn about the other clans.

The vampire's' second representative never came out, so I'd never seen him but I heard him speak once, he'd been gone by the time I looked. Gerheade and I got along best, with the human -Rou. He was funny and often complained to us about being stuck where all the feet were while we had wings.

Chandler liked to watch me. I could always count on finding his narrowed eyes following me when I looked over my shoulder. No matter what I was doing or who I was with, I always tried to acknowledge him. A wave, a smile but nothing was reciprocated.

Today, my giant friend Tins asked me to watch his fight. He had come of age, the biggest pre-teen I'd ever met. Among the giants, training and fighting were the most important things in their culture. Dying in battle, or childbirth was revered. I had always seen fighting as a means to kill, but the giants when pitted against one another, only fought until the other was defeated. A death in a battle, against one of their own kind, was pretty rare.

Watching the war, I'd seen blood and limbs flying but that's people going for the kill. Here, the training was sparring matches. The fights were met with laughs and slapped arms when they were over. I had told Meliodas long ago that I didn't want to learn to fight but watching these giants, I was changing my mind. A little platform was made for me, up at the Giants head level and I mirrored their feet positions, practicing sets with Tins and his friends.

They were the ones that told me Dabuzu lived as a Hermit, in the forest of ooze a few hours from here. I didn't know what he did but Tins had explained he was a master craftsman and specializes in magic statues, reliefs and making massive battle arenas using his earth manipulation.

I explained everything to Meliodas first. Even about the picture but he wasn't concerned. "Probably a self-congratulatory commemoration of some kind" and that did make sense. When I'd told Mael he had been so happy, he hugged me.

"That information alone has earned your permanent placement as my second." Mael had looked at me so proud I grew hot under his gaze. Was it really that important? He'd eaten up my assessment of the giant race, my new understanding of humans from Rou and since we've known fairies for some time, I didn't have much else there. Mael had grown cross with me when I didn't tell him about the demons. "So he follows you around like a lost puppy and you have nothing to show for it?" He'd chided. I bore it though, and the next day Mael had told me "that devils probably too smart to let anything slip." As if letting me off the hook for refusing to betray Meliodas.

Of course, Meliodas told me everything. I knew about his father, his brother and the Ten Commandments. Even how they got their power- how they were granted it from fragments of the Demon Kings power himself. When I asked to see his, Meliodas said he couldn't here, but when we got back to the theater he would draw it out. He did invoke it though, but for some reason, I didn't feel it the way others did. Just an aura change, thicker air maybe?

"It's because we are supposed to be together," I tell him, watching his eyes dance. "That's why your darkness feels so nice on my skin." Well, the tendrils did, that dark dome he'd put us in had made me uneasy.

After eating so much pork, the Fairies weren't feeling well and I was already feeling pretty wary of another pig meal so had asked Hya for a few handfuls of dirt. She'd asked what it was for and brought in a giants sized serving bowl full of dirt. It rested in the corner, beside our rooms and became my personal garden. I'd grown some berry bushes, a few apple trees and Gerheade gave me a dragon fruit seed that I'd coaxed life into. Everyone was welcome and I'd seen everyone here for the treaty in there picking their fill, except the vampires. I didn't cull it back, so it grew a little wilder when I coaxed more fruit every other day or so.

When I arrived at the training room, other giants had already gathered. I found the ledge I used to 'train', sitting down for my feet to dangle off the lip. Tins is facing off against his brother, Yumars. Tins would have to fight his elders until he prevailed. He would be allowed to heal between bouts but he couldn't join in any battles until he was a good enough fighter. I didn't like the thought of Tins getting hurt but I would be here for him.

"I faced Yumars four times before I could beat him." Tins and I's friend, Alloya confessed as if proud. Her head rested close to my ledge and I smiled at her.

"He'll hold his own," I tell her. She liked that, nodding and watching as the two met in the center of the circle of Giants. They shook hands, the older brother telling the younger that he wouldn't hold back, and good luck. No weapons were used in the fights, but the training grounds had them leaning against the walls scattered and disregarded.

"After this, do you want to go to the falls? A few of us girls are going. You can bring Gerheade and we'll be back before Drole's finished." I must have looked confused because Alloya laughed. "The cliffs, just past the quarries."

"Yeah," I say, glad to have something to do and to go see a sight.

"Keep it low key. We don't want visitors." Alloya knew Mael drilled me for any information and I nodded, determined. She smiled just as the first smash of fists started. Tins got in a hook to Yumars, his head winding back but his legs shifting forward and took out Tins stance. I gasped, climbing in the air as the giants crowded and cheered, blocking me from telling what was going on. A fleshy punch resounded followed by a string of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' as the lot of them winced. The fight was over and Yumars stood, in a power stance, shot his beefy fists in the air and howled.

"Great fight!" He helped his brother up, who winced and I flew around the slapping and congratulating hands to hover at Tins face.

"Want me to heal you?" I asked and Tins mushed up and bloody face smiled.

"I earned these." He said, being lead away by Yumars. All the giants were praising Tins, that it was an epic beginning in his journey and I smiled. Maybe fighting could be fun? Or I could see how some people would think it was fun.

Alloys asked me to meet her by the entrance after I found Gerheade. I agreed, knowing how to get to Black Beauty easily now. I'd never been past the trampled ground of Megadozer, not since we've arrived. I knew there was a quarry. A lot of the giants worked it, getting fine minerals and resources. It was their main trade good.

Gerheade was in my mini garden, picking a strawberry when I found her. She agreed eagerly. "Is it swimming too, or just the view? Either way, yes, I'm dying of boredom." We made our way to the exit when she asked if Rou could go. I told her it was Alloy's party, and she had expressed specifically girls. Alloys and two other giants were there when we arrived at the horse's stables by the entrance. A blonde and a brunette. We'd seen each other around but hadn't spoken much before so Alloys did the introductions. Teala and Bridgette, they were nice and laughed with Alloys over her crush on Tins.

"Try it before you buy it", Teala said and I looked to Gerheade with wide eyes, but she was just grinning at me.

"I'm never 'buying' for keeps," Alloys said, "I'll trade my men out just as quickly as my blades." She boasts and I smile, admiring that kind of freedom.

What would that be like? The Goddesses could leave their couplings and go to another but I felt like I wasn't made that way. I couldn't imagine myself with anyone other than Meliodas at the moment. A thing Lady Graelle told me once, that she had a great love in youth. Perhaps that's why she stayed the Head Mistress of the temple? Then Jelamet's sorrow flashed, had she thought she bought for keeps just to be tossed asside? Of course, and I wished her my love from so far away.

We went down into the quarry, not going into the mines but crossing the rope bridge. Gerheade told me she wouldn't step on that bridge if she didn't have her wings but the three giants rocked across it together, no fear in their voices. Talk turned to the treaty, about how boring the giant's lives will be going back to mercenary battles rather than the epic ones in the holy wars. I couldn't find common ground with that, not agreeing with how war hungry many of the giants seemed to be.

As we walked, I heard the rushing of water. The quarries ended, the rock slate top growing grass, moss and then little weeds. It was a slow growth that leads to bushes and the trees. We went into the thick of it, the slapping of the waterfall growing to thunderous levels. Then the ground just dropped off, the trees ending in a sudden cut. I looked down, flying past the edge the giants stopped at with Gerheade's beaming face at my side.

A huge pool of water was below. Milky blue with steam rising from it, giving it a white fog film over the lake. The cliffs we were on top of dropped about sixty feet, smooth from the mists eroding the edges away over time. The waterfall was to our right, shining in the sun as rainbows shimmered against the mists it kicked up. The water was falling out of the cliff side. The source of this cascade was from under the rocks and it reminded me of the bathing room at Megadozer.

The Giants had stripped, while we'd been admiring the view and they jumped in with huge splashes, laughing. Gerheade and I jumped together after taking our clothes off and leaving them at the cliffs top.

It was wonderful talking, splashing and relaxing in the water. Bridgette even used her earth creation power to make a little incline for me and Gerheade to relax on. It was hard to tread water for so long and there was already an edge for the giant-sized people. When the sun hit mid-descent, the Giants climbed back up. We dressed, still wet but trying to hurry.

My hair dripped, the fabric of my clothes clinging and soaking up the drops.

When I returned, laughing with Gerheade, Mael intercepted me grabbing me by the elbow to drag me to a corner. He was pissed I wasn't waiting for him outside Drole's council room like I was supposed to, to take his notes. Meliodas walked in then, strolling over to grin at me behind Mael's back.

"You're all wet, Elizabeth." He said, looking me over with a long lingering stare at my chest. "I bet you had some fun."

Mael fumed, turning on his heels to walk away from me and past Meliodas' grinning face with his hands up resting at the back of his neck. "Come, Elizabeth. I have need of you." Meel commanded and I flushed, having to follow. I smiled at Meliodas, telling him 'thank you' as I passed, in a little whisper.

That night, when Meliodas came to my cave-room, he had his bedroll under his arm. He had a white pullover shirt and black pants, but bare feet. I flushed, seeing them. Being so familiar with a man, coming to my bed, even just to cuddle, it seemed so intimate. "I want to show you something. Bring your blanket."

I fold it up, tucking it under my arm and go to Meliodas. I take his hand and we jump down, quiet as we walk out past Hya with a wave. She knew most of our sneaking and never said a word. He leads me through the massive rooms, ascending up until we reach the opening to the top of Megadozer. It was dark, the view under the moonlight made the land like ink against gray with sparkling silver points of light over it all.

Meliodas laid his bedroll out, his blanket tossed on top of it as he holds my hand, looking with me for a while. It was warmer out here than inside the cave city. The fires only did so much inside the stone. Without Meliodas's body heat I wouldn't be warm enough to sleep. Slowly, he guided me to the cush pad, sitting with me.

"Look up." He suggests with a hushed voice, as if not to disturb the peace, "It's the first clear night since you arrived." I stretch out, long ways across the bedroll and put my head in his lap as he leans back his palms keeping him upright as he faces the stars.

This high, it was just the sky and Meliodas. No outlines at the edges of my vision with the darkness swallowing everything up. He spoke again, soothing and quiet. "It was like this the first night I was here. I kept thinking about you and the obstacles we face together."

With the vastness above us, I understood.

"When I'm with you, it seems like all that doesn't matter. No division of races, no hundreds of years war to end and no parentage issues..." I smile, awash in his soft words. "You're bravery with facing your peoples' prejudice. By holding my hand, you forced them to evolve. How could they not after seeing you show no fear of four war-hardened warrior demons." He chuckled, the best sound amongst the silence. "Sariel and Tarmiel both admire you, they made an effort to understand us. Even Mael isn't horrible if he would get out of his own head a bit." He shifted under me, laying back and putting his blanket under his head as only his thighs and his back rest on the bedroll. "You lost your closest friend and still decided we were worth it. Even finding a way to come to Megadozer to be with me. You are so strong, Elizabeth."

I grow hot, his hand reaching out just as mine moves up to meet his. We interlace our fingers.

"You have fought for us too," I whisper and I feel him give a shaky breath more than hear it, in disbelief? "You proposed this treaty. The war ended all thanks to you."

"No. You have taken the short stick in our relationship and have wielded it like a seasons swordsmith. Outside of Chandler, Cusack, and Zeldris, no one knows about you." I flinch but grip his fingers harder as if he were slipping away. On some level, I knew that it made the most sense, and I understood. "You ended the war, pleading with me as you did before that battle. I proposed the treaty sure, but more to see if Ludociel would be agreeable, to use it, not to truly end it."

The stars blurred, the sky swirled and I squeezed my eyes shut but the tears pinched from between my lids in a slow fall. He gave me too much credit and himself not enough. He saved me from that Vampire attacker, he faced the goddess clan with me. The days and hours of treaty negotiations! Of course, his clan didn't know yet, I've not been there in some time!

"Don't cry." He pleads and I turn my head toward him. Meliodas curls into me, shifting under my head to face me on his side where his head ended up near my hip. "I tell you this, so you fully understand. No matter what happens, or what enemies we face, I'll always be on your side. You've taught me a new kind of bravery, Elizabeth." I can't help crying. I turn my body to mirror his on my side too, head on his leg.

"You've been a wonderful friend to me, I don't feel like I've lost anything, not because of you," I tell him. I gained so much more than I've lost. Jelamet was because of her own situation. The people that hated me for being with Meliodas hadn't been important to begin with or didn't know enough about the world outside of their bubble!

"Friend huh?" He smirks, still holding my hand as he sits up, reaching over me with his free hand and situates my blanket over me. I smile, feeling cared for.

"The best one I've ever had," I tell Meliodas, my tears falling with a big grin on my face. "I'm so happy," I admit, reaching forward with my other hand to enclose his in both of mine. He just vowed to always be on my side. I never had someone like that before, except maybe Lady Grealle.

"You cry when you're happy?" He puzzled, sounding amused. His voice changes, growing thick with emotion. "You're beautiful."

We stare, not at the stars but at each other, hands clasps. We talk a little more, but eventually, my eyes closed and don't open again for hours. Meliodas and I sleep under the stars, ying and yang, still holding hands.

A soft flutter touches my lips. It reminds me of something, but different. It happens again, firmer, a warm pressure and a jolt of excitement spreads down my spine. My eyes open and Meliodas is over me, the sky still dark above us. "Oh. Good morning." I mumble, my voice scratchy from sleep.

"Hm, it is isn't it." He purred, nuzzling against my cheek. "I thought we could watch the sunrise, before having to attend to our duties." With a few soft kisses more, I rose, sitting up with the blankets wrapped around us, we watched the sunrise. Just as the orange glow starts to spill over towards us my brain clicks on. I knew where I felt that soft flutter before... both days I woke with Mael on our way over.

He had kissed me awake.

While I was asleep he had stolen kisses! I gasp, my hand covering my open mouth as if to protect it, devastated. He wouldn't! But, he did! Mael may be a lot of things but to take advantage of a vulnerable girl like that? I shook my head, physically trying to deny it. A strangled groan escaped me. One I'd only heard from me once before, when a child I knew at charity's home hadn't survived her fever.

"Elizabeth?" Meliodas rose to his knees, his hands gripping around my head, over my ears, he pulls me to his chest. "We'll make it work, we have a chance. I swear, being with you is easy, it's just the rest of the world that complicates it."

He assumed it was our relationship that upset me and I shook my head. I couldn't tell him, could I? "If I... I have something to tell you, but I'm afraid you'll be angry..." I stammered, "it can't get in the way of this treaty- You have to promise."

Meliodas pulls away, eyes speculating but deep green, brows low and concerned. "I promise." He whispers, and I explain, the whole journey here with Mael and how when Meliodas woke me just now, kissing me awake I realized what Mael had done. Meliodas thumbed over my tears, palms cupping my face. "You've done nothing wrong, don't worry."

"But on our next journey home..." I say, wide-eyed and scared. "Ghosts were bad enough!" His eyes soften, his lips tilting up.

"If I can, we may be able to travel home together, our clans are neighbors and in the same direction." I relaxed, my tears drying up in an instant.

"You would do that?' I shivered, holding my hands over his on my cheeks.

"Absolutely." He promises, "I'll be the one to steal those sweet kisses, and those ghosts won't stand a chance." Then he winks, actually making fun of me at a time like this. "Meliodas!" I scoff and then we kissed, soft and easy before gathering our sleep stuff, holding hands while we walked back to our rooms. On the way, he tells me with dark green eyes "Thank you, for trusting me with this."


	15. Giant Modesty

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Fifteen: Giant Modesty

Tins is recovering from his second fight. He lost, again, but look thrilled by how much he learned. "My pain, my struggling makes the inevitable victory mean so much more to me, the greatest win because of my persistence." Tins words rang a cord in me. We were heading to the tannery. He was down to his last loin wrap and wanted to make another. I've done simple repairs to clothing before but making my own sounded interesting.

Our time here is over halfway over. I'd learned a few skills among the giants, made a few good friends and have been accepted amongst the clan here. I thought, so many of them would enjoy it if I participated in another facet of their culture, and I was thrilled about it. I had the time on my hands while waiting for Mael and Meliodas.

Tins had some black leather, he taught by doing and I watched as he made a needle, used some ties and cut the tanned leather to his size. The extra scraps from his loin wraps were plenty for two full outfits and then some at my size. I'd probably need it all for my inevitable mess ups. The cord he used to sew was made of much smaller ones and I asked for a long snip of it to pull it apart to use.

I wrapped all the supplies in the longest piece of leather, binding it with the cord. Tins laughed as I gathered it all up. "Good luck! Let me see your final product when you're done." On my way to my room, I pass Alloya. She was in a strapless dress that barely covered the swell of her ass. I explained what I was doing and she laughed. "Don't forget to carve buttons. That's the hardest part." She invited me to the waterfalls again but I had a mission now.

Rou had a knife he let me borrow and Gerheade said she could make me a needle out of wood. She went to the bowl garden and with a touch to the ground, she sprouted one, grown with her creation magic. It even had a hole. I thanked them, excited to get started and spread it all out. I carved the pieces, a dress for me and a vest for Meliodas. Tins suggestions rang out and I decided to create mine first, to perfect my skills before doing Meliodas'.

It took me the rest of the day to untwist the cord into more manageable strips. The front of my dress would cover from my upper thighs, up over my chest, where I left a large hole to show my cleavage as all giants did, where the straps would hopefully push them together and a button behind my neck. The back would start under my wings in a v, to cover my behind. I planned on looping the strips loosely between the two sides of fabric so my skin would peek through.

Giants showed their skin without shame, so in the name of learning, I'd try...

The needle poked through the leather well enough but I had to be slow with each hole so not to stress it too much. I started at the top, weaving the strips and tying a bow at the end. Repeating the process on the other side. Alloya was right, the button would be the hardest part. Since I had such long hair, I skimped on mine, looping the thin cord at the top of either strap to tie rather than button at the back of my neck.

I couldn't do that for Meliodas' vest though.

I folded my dress, tucking it into my bag and rolling up my supplies to leave beside the crude desk. With a destination in mind, I flew off to the Tannery. I need scrap wood to carve from. I could always go searching outside tomorrow if I couldn't find something. Tins is gone and none of the giant I knew by name but there had to be something. Buttons did exist here, handmade ones. A rounded Giant, well into a pregnancy, looked the friendliest and I asked her. She not only said she'd gather what I needed but would also show me how to carve them.

When she returned, in her palm was a cube of white oak. With a giant's hand-sized dagger, a sword to me, she chopped and whittled. Rounding the top and smoothing the bottom with the exception of the knob to attach to the clothing. "Getting the hole just right, that's what's tricky." While she shows me her skills I ask after her pregnancy and life to get to know her.

Giants were different than I'd assumed. Fighting was their most important cultural norm but they were open. If you asked what was in their heart, they would tell you. They were open about sex, about how they felt and what they wanted. It was refreshing, reminding me of Meliodas and me with each other. Where I only had that openness with him, the giant's entire clan had it with each other. That openness caused a lot of inner-clan fighting but it also made them closer.

I collected the biggest fallen chunks from the floor. The button she'd made, which was the size of a small shield to me, is round and detailed. With many thanks, I left my new friend, arms full of misshapen wood pieces. I ran out of time today but I risked running late to toss them in my room before going to meet Mael outside of Drole's meeting room. That massive giant was very stoic, but Meliodas counted him a friend. The two of them hit it off and often Meliodas and Drole had little competitions during the time Mael used me to record everything.

Arm wrestling mainly, which was crazy since Drole had four. Last I knew, they were talking about a drink off, barrel to stein for fairness.

Rushing, I fly as quickly as possible, meeting Mael in the hall. I waved to Meliodas who waved back, following us from below as we made our way together, Chandler at his back. Surprisingly though, Mael dismissed me, telling me he felt exhausted and might go for a drink. I'd only seen him trashed once before but I didn't argue.

With a free evening, I stuck to Meliodas. We ate around the fire in front of our rooms with the other Clan representatives, except the vampires and Mael. Steamed pork was provided by Hya, much to our 'surprise' and after a barrel of ale was delivered the mood shifted. Even Chandler laughed with us until Meliodas forgot himself and kissed me on the side of the head when he got up. It grew silent, the lot of them shocked we were comfortable with one another in this way. Had we been that chaste around one another while others were around?

"Oh, get over yourselves," Hya called out, sitting in the doorway with half a pig hanging out of her mouth. I looked at Meliodas. "Those two have been sneaking to see one another every night since they arrived." My face flooding with hot, heat and turned to stare, mortified at the fire.

"What kind of Goddess are you?" Rou questioned, "I thought they stayed pure or-" Gerheade punched him in the shoulder, I saw her out of the corner of my eye paired with Rou's grunt, while Gloxinia just laughed.

"They've been together for weeks." Gloxinia contributed. "What's that big smile for, Chandler?"

"Just thinking about the Demon king's reaction when he finds out," Chandler provoked, cruelly. The temperature dropped, the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I feel dread settle in. Not from his words but from... power. Dark power. Was this Chandler? I looked, but he was facing away, head down as if in a slight bow. Rou was standing, crouched in a fighting stance. Gloxinia had pushed his sister behind him, Gerheade had her hands over her mouth and for the first time, I saw the Vampires. A dark-haired, pale man with a long face and a childlike blonde boy. Both were staring curiously, the kid had his tongue out.

Meliodas.

He's beside me, demon mark on his forehead but his eyes were still moss green. I grin up at him. "They spook easy, huh?" I coaxed. He smirks, dark and devious, it doesn't shine in his eyes. I reach up, taking his hand.

"No, don't!" Gloxinia warned, trying to stop me but not moving from his spot in front of his sister. Looking over, I see Chandler, mouth open in shock at my actions. Why were they acting like this is strange? I smile reassuringly at the others.

"It's just his aura," I explain. "He suppresses it for others sake. It takes a lot of concentration. It would be like me constantly keeping my wings bound, the same for you fairies." With a squeeze of my hand, Meliodas' eyes lighten and the feeling of imminent death fades to a slow burn. He chuckles, his free hand coming up to scratch his head.

"Ah, shit." Meliodas says coming back to himself, "I think I just had too much to drink." He pulls me to my feet, smiling. "Cats out of our bag, Elizabeth. Looks like we are free to enjoy ourselves." With a side step and a misdirecting spin, he moves to press his body against me, gripping my behind from around my thighs. He picked me up from there, his fingers so close to my core as my breasts surround his face. He held me up like that and I yelped. In between my boobs, Meliodas mumbles "off to bed then." Gerheade lets out a small, nervous chuckle.

"Meliodas!" I scold, as Meliodas walks us toward the cave rooms. "I can't believe you just-" He squats, kicking off into the air and landing in his space. As soon as we arrive about halfway inside, he set me down on my feet, dropping to his knees and sagging his forehead to my core... but not sexually. His shoulders shook, silently and I sink, my legs parting to fit Meliodas's knees between them. My back to the opening I spread my wings to cover us and I wrap him up to me.

"Don't worry," I tell him. Hushed and soft, combing my fingers through his hair and resting my cheek on the top of his head. Was he always that close to losing control? I seemed to help him keep his inner demon at bay. I'd ask him about that, later.

We stay in his room that night, laying in his bed and instead of him wrapped around me, it's the other way round. My turn to protect him.

That morning, he's different. He still cops his feels, still kisses me goodbye and even gives Mael a good view of us leaving his room... but he doesn't have the same flavor. His eyes don't shine. His green eyes stay flat, his thumbs don't trace little designs on the back of my hand and he carried himself just a little differently. No one else seemed to notice, Gloxinia patted his shoulder telling him 'I'm glad you're back to yourself'. But he wasn't.

How did no one else notice?

Gerheade asked if I wanted to go to the falls with her, Rou and some others but I declined. That left me, Hya, Chandler and the vampire in his cave. She hesitated to leave knowing the company left and I told her 'go have fun!' with an eye roll, so she did. I worked through Meliodas' vest slowly. Giving him pockets at his hips and double checking everything before I sew the pieces together. I skipped lunch, snagging an apple and going right back to my hard stone stool to work away.

I just had to carve the buttons and cut the slits for them to connect through on the side. With at least an hour or so before Mael needed me, I started on the rounded tops of five chunks of wood. I moved to the garden bowl, so I didn't have to worry about the shavings. When I pressed too hard, I nicked my thumb but before I healed it... I remembered Tins words.

Making this for Meliodas, I wanted it to mean something. So, I left the wound.

Over the next hour, all I'd accomplished was smoothing the five pieces out on the top side. The easiest part of the little thing but I had two cuts to show for it. Mael again dismissed me, making another excuse and I frowned. One day, maybe, but two... and in a row? Meliodas had been trailing us from below and I asked Mael "Is everything okay?" Mael gave me a sad smile.

"Time will show you the truth and I'm a patient man." I frowned, stopping to hover there as Mael goes on. Meliodas had waited below and I glided down to take his hand. We moved along the inside wall as he told me Drole was almost finished with them. That before they left, the two scheduled a fight as their final competition against one another.

"Oh, please be careful." I request, my free hand already over my heart imagining the largest giant punching Meliodas into the ground with all four of his hulking fists.

"You aren't going to ask me not too?' Meliodas questions, surprise in his voice and he was almost back to himself for a flash of a wry grin.

"No. Fighting can be fun." I tell him, growing hot. I thought of Tins and the other scraps I had watched when I learned in their training rooms. It had been two days since I'd gone but we could go tonight. "I'd only ever seen war before, equated fighting with killing but here, it's like hoop-ball to giants. Still, I don't want you to be hurt."

Meliodas softens, eyes aglow as he looks up at me, but in a flash, it dimmed and my smile faded with his. Is this about his father? The demon king is the most intimidating god-like being I'd ever heard of. Was he as bad as the goddesses said? I thought maybe it was just exaggerated propaganda?

"It's called 'Booru', but hoop ball is a cute name," Meliodas corrects, squeezing my hand as he goes wide under a giant's running footfalls. "You can't heal me, after. Even if I lose, which of course I will try my best not to." He gives me a winning smile, it's off as his eyes don't crinkle like they used to.

"Okay," I relent, feeling so small. It didn't get better all evening. We eat, go to the training center to watch the giants fight and I even show him some of the things I've learned. He goes warm a few times, letting me move his body around and watching me move mine. That night, I ask to go to his room, as I couldn't remember if I put all the leather away, or the buttons.

The days repeat, I carve, cut myself up. I do Mael, Meliodas and I's laundry and talk with Gerheade. She thinks Mael is letting Meliodas and I run its course, that he may have let me go for the time being. I knew he wanted more from me, from the stolen kisses but I hadn't told Gerheade that and asked her how she knew that he liked me. "He's always watching you." She explained, mocking a tongue lolling face staring at my chest.

Later, I mess up on two buttons, having to restart but when I have five I started etching the design in the extra wood for practice. Modeling from Meliodas' demon mark, I trace it on the buttons and start chipping away the inside to indent the symbol. The dye was freely given in the tannery so when they were fully etched I could fill in the symbols black, to match his. I was careful but still ended up stabbing myself when I slipped or used too much pressure.

None of my fingers had made it out unmarred today.

With the leftover cord, I folded his finished vest, tying it with a bow. I brought it to his room and left it on his desk, knowing I would probably be with him when he saw it. When I finished I thought, now would be the day to wear my outfit. We only had a few days left here. I changed, feeling tight and exposed but... free. The leather was pliable so I could drop to my fighters stance or bend quickly while the dress still clung. I could see why the Giants used animal skins, it felt durable.

I found Tins first, twirling before his eyes and his whistle gets a few others attention. Bridgette was there from the day at the waterfalls and she calls out "Hot little momma." Making my face burn. I knew they reacted so much from the dress because I usually stayed so covered but when she pointed out the sides and the skin that showed from the ties I felt like maybe I went too far.

Of course, right then, a Giant lady walked by with a chest wrap that didn't cover more than her nipples, the bottom swells of them bouncing. Maybe I was still modest in comparison with only the tops of my cleavage showing rather than everything but my nipple. After that, I felt differently though and suddenly I didn't want anyone else to see me. Thankfully Gerheade hadn't been in our main chambers when I left and I prayed it was empty now. I even dropped to the floors to get less attention.

I passed Drole's meeting room and a giant was coming out of the massive doors, the only doors in the place, and out of instinct I look that way, seeing Meliodas. He sat up, a lazy smile spread across his face and he leaned over to watch me as long as possible with the door closing. I grew even hotter while being frozen in place. Maybe this dress was a good idea if it got Meliodas' to melt again. That's when I heard Drole's voice "We're dismissed then, Meliodas. We will resume tomorrow."

"Oh!" I took off at a run, jumping into flight as the door opens again and I feel Meliodas. I look back, and he's kicked off the cave wall to bounce to the other, aiming for me. Using gravity to my advantage I fold my wings. He soars overhead and I giggle, spinning in the air and change directions to fly passed the doors again, with Mael's wide eyes alarmed at the sight of me.

"Elizabeth!" He exclaims, scandalized but I dodge around him, with Meliodas' hearty laugh echoing behind me.

Drole is there, I dip low to fly between his legs and I hear his mountainous laugh as Meliodas says behind me. "Very important, as you see, Drole." Did he end the meeting because of my dress? I turn to fly backward, grinning as I go high, taking the path to the top of Megadozer. Meliodas gets close, skimming his fingers across the leather at my behind and I know he's just playing with me. Not trying to catch, but to have fun...

When he flew to intercept me, jumping from one wall toward another, I spun swatting his butt in retaliation and his laugh echoed in the dome of the cave. It was full, hearty and I wanted to stay in the sound like a warm blanket. He grabbed my foot, pulling me down before releasing me, kicking off a wall and catching me around the waist. Without any fight, I wrap my arms around his neck and he shifts my legs up to hold me princess style as we drop, catching us with bent legs.

"Look at you." He mutters, his hands under my knees splaying to feel up my open thigh. His face dips and I expect a kiss, except he doesn't go for my lips, he nuzzles my cleavage. "Ah!" I exclaimed, flinching at the unexpected touch, and trying to wiggle out of his arms.

"Mmm. I like you writhing against me." He flirted and I freeze, alarmed at myself. He sets me down, backing me against the wall, out in the open and feeling my exposed flesh in quick, hurried gropes. I gasp as it feels like he had a hundred hands, the sensations building me and warming and I grow hot for another, darker reason.

"Meliodas?" I groan, and from the crux of my neck where he'd been leaving soft kisses he hums against my skin "hmmm?" I gasp, holding on to his shoulders to steady myself. I take a breath to try and get the sensations under control but I can't seem to focus. Hadn't I wanted to ask him something? His breath on my neck paused as he chuckled, pulling away and giving me a second to calm my raging breaths. I looked at him, warmly. "Since you are skipping out on your duties today," I mock chide "Want to do something fun?"

He's intrigued, agreeing and I take his hand to lead the way. We pass giants that don't notice us and I guide him out, heading to the quarry. It's a walk on foot but we had time. A whole day together! Maybe a break is what he needs, fun to get his mind off of everything. His thumb traces a slow circle up the back of my hand. I had missed those.

"Elizabeth?" He spoke, pulling my hand in front of his face. "What have you been doing that's abused your little hands so?" and at my shrug, he gives a sad smile "Why don't you heal them?"

"It means more if I endure." I watch his eyebrows raise as if considering and accepting my answer. When we reach the bridge I pause nervously at the shabby ropes and planks. Meliodas jumped, pulling me from one overly large step to the next. This could hold giants, I had wings, I reminded myself but it was Meliodas turning and jumping backward that reassured me most. Face to face, I could go anywhere.

"Where are we going, Elizabeth?" He asked when we walked along the quarry. I could see the green in the distance but couldn't hear the water yet. I gave a shy smile, pointed in the direction we needed. "Although, just watching you move in that little dress is all the fun I need in life." I grow hot.

"I've learned a lot from the giants." I tell him, thinking of the value of openness, the silliness of being body shy, although much harder to shake when faced with that situation, and even fighting.

"I have too." He mused, and we continue on in silence until the waters start rushing in the distance like a buzz, growing louder. Among the bushes and trees, Meliodas figures it out. He doesn't say anything but turns to look at me sparkly-eyed. "Wet, I bet your dress will fit your curves even better." He trails his fingers down the curve of my butt and I let him.

"Close your eyes," I tell him when I know we're close and the trees are in the way. In front of him, I take his hands and guide him when he shuts his lids. I situate us on the ledge, so he'll get a wonderful view before stepping behind him and undoing the ties of my dress at my neck. "Open them," I instructed, and I watch as he takes in the view. The mists, the blue milky water with steam rising and the waterfall bleeding like a gushing wound with the mists dancing in the rainbow's light.

"Woah." He marveled, stepping closer to the ledge and looking down. "How did you find this?" He asks, but I let my dress fall, stepping out of it and as he turns to look at me I panic. I run for the ledge, jumping off the lip and diving forward, soaring through the open air and arching toward the water. I hear his long, low groan over the pounding of the falls and smile, growing warm knowing he's watching me.

I make contact with the water, feeling the warm rush and I use my wings to push myself up to take a big gulping breath when I breach the surface. "Me next!" He yells. I tread water, watching from above as Meliodas, naked as ever, jumps with limbs spread, appearing to be on course with a belly smack but tucks in a ball at the last moment, splashing and making a wave in the water. From what I could see in the quick flash of his member, Meliodas was hard already. As the waves calm, he breaks the surface, hair flinging droplets in an arch as he emerges, laughing.

With him naked and so close, I flush but move my legs and kick water at him as I swim away. He disappears and I look around. "Meliodas?" I worried before I'm grabbed by the waist and pulled under. His lips find mine and when we bob back into the air, we don't part. Wet, slick limbs gliding against each other as we both tread water. When I grew fuller and fuller of sensation I had to pull away, gasping for sanity with wide eyes, but he kept hold of my bare hips. Hands slowly roaming.

"Come this way," I breathed, leaning back and his body mirrors mine as we kick over to the ledge the giants had made Gerheade and I. We could reach here, and it slowly got more and more shallow as you went. Meliodas took the lead, I tried to keep my chest underwater as we crept up the incline. When he stopped I was grateful for this depth to keep myself covered to my neck.

In a quick grab, he had me over his shoulder, reminding me of the time I tried to find my panties among his pockets with my legs at his back. My arms pushed against his chest to stay upright as his hand kneaded my bottom. His hard member bobs out of the water with our ascent and it's right there. "Oh!" I exclaim as he stops when the water is knee deep. He spins in place, "hm'ing and huh'ing" as I stare at him there. He's long and thick and the water had beaded against him. Veins traveled the length and I flushed, knowing I'd felt him once, over his pants.

"This seems like just the place to give you your first orgasm." He proclaimed and I frown as he flips me up to lower me, back first, into the water again. He's leaning over me, feet planted on either side of my ankles now floating in the milky but translucent water. It wasn't deep enough to keep me fully covered and I tried with my hands for some modesty.

"What are we doing?" but I stop as he flinches, eyes wide as he looks at me. I was supposed to know about this. Was it sex? The completion of coupling and I put my palms out, firm against his chest as if to physically stop that idea. I knew the basics. He puts his hardness inside me, but I wasn't ready.

"It's not what you think," Meliodas hesitated, his playfulness shifting to the soft gentle Meliodas that would kiss my forehead while we held each other every night. My hands fell away, covering my own chest again. "You know the feeling you told me about, that ever-expanding bubble of desire that grows the more I touch you. When it bursts its like, an explosion of heaven, through every nerve in your body. That's cumming. An orgasm." He reaches forward, removing my hands from my breasts and bringing each of my fingertips to his lips to touch a kiss on each pad.

My tummy explodes in butterflies and my chest tightens with apprehension.

"You mean... I can feel more than I already do?" I whisper, alarmed. "I don't think I can take it," I admit, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. My body already reaches a limit of sensation and any more I would lose touch with reality. I barely kept myself together the night he snuck in my room and the morning his demon tasted my nipples with his wicked tongue. With my fear, desire swirled, and even in the water I could tell when my juices started to flow.

"Yes." He promised, sounding hoarse as if he was losing his voice. "You will." His foot moves between my floating ankles, his hand finding the opposites knee and slowly he spread my legs. I grow hot, the water feeling too warm as I cover myself with my hands again. He drops to his knees, straddling mine.

"Wait," I whisper, and his liquid green orbs leisurely travel up my skin, leaving trails of longing in its wake. When he meets my eyes I ask, reaching for his upper arms and revealing more of my body simultaneously with my words. "Will you... orgasm with me?" I request, "I won't be afraid if you go with me."

Slowly, he leans forward, almost crawling over me but without touching, careful. Then his forehead makes contact with mine. All this naked flesh and it's just our faces this close. "Elizabeth." He purrs, eyes blinking slowly. "I don't know your body well enough to time it... but I'll be here, together, with you."

I stare. The apprehension, curiosity, and throbbing at my core all warring with each other. Slowly, under him I relax, tipping up to kiss him. Soft and easy at first as he relaxes too. I hadn't realized how tense he had been until he wasn't anymore. Our kiss deepened, he touches my collarbone, awakening my nerves where he touched. Over my chest, paying extra attention to each nipple and shakily I reached out to touch the corded muscles at his stomach. With a gasp, we parted mouths. He looked like he was in pain.

We both looked down at him as his hard member strained.

"Does it hurt, being so hard?" I question, my fingers moving on their own to graze up the base of him in the water and finding ridges along his length. His skin was soft there, like a thin layer of silk over stone. This was the first time I'd ever touched him this way and I wanted to see if I was doing it right. His face looked stunned. As if he never expected me to be so bold. I was just about to stop, growing hot when he answered.

"In a way." He answers, breathy and strained. I automatically send a jolt of healing from my hand and the water glows for a moment between us. "Did you just... try to heal me?" He asks and I flush realizing that probably wasn't what I was supposed to do. He looks at me endearingly, leaning in to kiss me soft and quick. "You're so sweet it hurts." His breathy voice caresses against my lips and I don't know how he can make me need so much.

He guides my hand away, his forearm against mine as he smiles predatorily. The nerves spark just as he licks his lips and looked over me as if not sure where to start. His knee slides over mine, still straddling my right leg as he tucks me against his chest, an arm holding me up as he puts my head in the bend of his elbow. Under my arm, his hand there played with the side of my boob, grazing my nipple.

His other hand guided my left knee for my legs to part again. As if in no rush, he moved the back of his knuckles along my thigh, climbing higher at a devastatingly slow pace. Did I want sluggish to prepare myself more or did I want him there already so I didn't have to anticipate it so anxiously? My slit pulsed and I wanted him to touch me. My hips shifted, trying to get closer to his fingers and I moved my arm, wedged between us to wrap around his back, gripping his hip as if to keep him close.

"I have you." He reassures, hand centimeters from my core.

"You do." I admit with a foreign needy voice and he lets a low 'mmmm' escape as his hardness pressed against my leg with a small thrust of his hips. He hadn't touched me yet and already I felt the overfull bubble of sensation expand. Just as his fingers touched my core my wings shuddered and I grew hot in a few ways, embarrassed at their reaction. My slit throbbed, pooling warmth in my stomach while my face and chest felt like they were burning.

"Meliodas." I whispered, trying to keep myself still to endure the onslaught of feeling. He dips, kissing me as his fingers slid between my legs against the lips there. With a shock, I felt a jolt at my core that felt like he'd sent some kind of power into me. What was this? He repeated the motion, hitting my little bud and the jolt returned, more intense as I rocked my hips involuntarily. "Oh." My lips parted in surprise and Meliodas wasted no time to dip his tongue inside my mouth to stroke his to mine.

My head fell back with the next stroke, breaking our kiss, tilting over his arm as I gasp trying to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest.

"The softest of silks, Elizabeth." Meliodas murmurs, "just look at you." He praises, playing with the bud at my core and twisting against me there with his expert digits. "You're flushed chest quivering in rhythm with my touch, the sound of your voice so deep in the throws... Elizabeth you are a dream, the greatest gift. The sweetest of honey."

His throaty words spur me on, the next twirl of his finger against my tender underbelly wrings a moan from me. The climb had begun. A steady onslaught of pleasure radiated out from my center, coaxed out under Meliodas. The waves of passion threatened to bring me under and I resisted the pull, arching my back while thrusting my chest into the air. My hand at Meliodas' back went limp as it took all my concentration not to fall apart.

With a shift, Meliodas held me, melted in his arms and spread wide. He blew a soft breath over my chest and he hissed low, deep. "Look at those pretty peaks reach for me." His mouth bent, his hard member pressed firmly against my hip as he licked my nipple, mirroring his fingers movements.

"Meliodas..." I grouse, scared and my limp arms grew ridged with the effort to keep my wits about me. My eyes squeeze shut as my right hand gripped at his back, scratching at nothing as he was too slick to hold on too and my left came to the back of his head, fisting in his hair as I waver on the edge of something. "I- I... p-please... Meliodas!" I sound so lost, and with another flick of my bud paired with the languid wet tongue over my nipple, it had me... floating away.

There is a blissful moment where my body lost control of every muscle, they vibrated with pleasure. "Meliodas!" I scream, straining my voice as it dies in a whimper. My body arched, tense but so awake, alive with electricity. Waves of it crashed at the shores of my senses and I didn't know anything other than this feeling. Infused with it.

He holds me, keeping me grounded as my eyes open and I see all around us a glow of white light. Lazily he's still stroking my core but he's watching my face, kneeling over me. His hair dried as if pushed back from a great wind and I look at him. Meliodas had shown me the world, changed everything. He was the key to my body and I relished in him.

"If you keep looking at me like that, I can't be held accountable for what I do." He warned, eyes growing darker and grin growing arrogant. Meliodas knew he shook the entire foundation of my life. I flushed, growing hot as I moved to sit up, freeing Meliodas arm and untangling my own from his back and hair.

I wasn't sure if I could handle any more than this today so I looked away but then spotted his hard member straining in the clear water. Clear? The water around us, in a twenty-foot circle, was crystal clear, purified of the minerals. Had that light been real and not my hypersensitive mind playing tricks? Was that normal? I felt self-conscious, covering myself and too afraid to ask, but then a thought trickled in.

"Will you show me how to make you orgasm?" I request, not able to meet his eyes but tucking my legs under me to sit before him with my feet tucked under me, toes holding me up to be at a slightly better height with him still on his knees. "I want you to feel like you're floating away too," I breathed, chancing a quick look at his face. His eyes were closed, his brows relaxed, as if he were trying to remember something really important.

"Say that again." He demands, eyes opening at half mast, the liquid emerald green swirled under them. Meliodas was happy. I smiled, glad for it as I asked again if he would teach me how to pleasure him. My hands shook as I reached for him. Meliodas intercepted my hands and a small sting of rejection pierced me, before he brought my palms to his hardness, wrapping his hand around mine. He moved my hands over his member in a firm back and forth motion, the other he grazed his tight sack under his hardness but trailing it up his chest in a clear invitation to touch him wherever as I stroked him.

When I picked up the pace myself, Meliodas' calloused hand fell away. I kept it steady as he had me but with each upstroke in the water, I moved my thumb over his pink crown. He was softest there and his breath hitched, chin pointing up. I watched him, understanding now why he had said he liked watching me. His face expressed his pleasure. My free hand grew brave, roving down his arm to take his hand and I guided his hand like he had guided mine up my wet thigh to rest at the cusp of my behind. I left his hand there.

With another stroke-rub combo, I remembered how tingles had spread down my spine when he would breathe on my neck and with his head fallen back it was the perfect opportunity. I leaned forward, kissing over his ribs where one of his hearts would be, then lazily I trailed a line of them across his collarbone and against his neck. His chest trembled, as my fingers worked opposite my kisses and my hand continued my firm stroking. The water gave me a nice slickness to work with.

"You're so hard," I tell him, breathing against his neck. "I didn't know it would feel like this," I confess, licking the cord of strained muscle that appeared under my tongue. He liked this. I kept up my licks, kisses, and breaths at his neck, nipping his ear as I grew braver with my free hand. I dipped it low, remembering the graze of his sack and I cupped it, feeling the weight of it. "Ugggh" resounded from his chest, like a rumble.

His breathing shifts, from pants to heaves and I arch as my own desires swirl, awakening again, my bare chest rubbing his. Immediately his hips thrust against my fist and I keep up his new rhythm, working his sack in tandem.

"I'm dreaming." He whispers his hand at my ass gripping as if making sure I was really there, his other grips around my upper arm as if to prevent my escape.

"Is this what you dream about?" I breathed, nibbling at his neck and inching forward for the tip of his hardness to graze at my thigh under the water. With his hips pumping the new rhythm was punishing, the water splashing around us. "I've dreamed of you, too," I confess, soft and shivering from my own thoughts as Meliodas moans, low and deep, his hand at my ass pulls me closer. My body against his. It's harder to stroke with us pressed close, so I shift to spread my legs, my core to his thigh so I can keep my pace.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas hushes, his grip on my arm tightens, forgetting himself and I sighed, happily. "I'm gonna..." He warns, and I'm not sure which to watch, his face or his member. Meliodas' brows crinkle together, his mouth stretched thin before he lets out a 'ungh' and his face relaxes to bliss. I feel his hardness throb under me and I flush, looking down. He pulsed, as my core did. White streams were jetting out of the head of his member. I slowed my pace, taking my other hand from his sack to swipe at the liquid he expelled across his head to look at it out of the water. It sparked in the sun, like liquid pearls.

Without thinking, I lick it off my thumb, tasting the salty tang of him. Hm. I looked up, sitting back on my heels as best I can with him still holding my behind and me still stroking his member, to meet his blazing eyes. I let go of him, mortified as sudden realization hits. I just tasted his orgasm. "I'm sorry-" I start to mutter but he kisses me, hard and needing, arms wrapping around my waist and mine instinctively find his hair. He's pouring his feelings into me and I feel it, with his gentle touches and soft 'mm's'.

When he pulls away, he moves his hands, slowly up my body to take my face in his hands. "You are a treasure." He swooned, "one I don't deserve but you can bet your last coins- I'm going to keep it." I flush, nodding in agreeance before he wraps me up against his chest. "There just... can't be someone like you." He whispers to the sky, awe and desperate pleading in his voice. Had that been just as overwhelming to him? We held one another and I think it had been.


	16. Bandages

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Sixteen: Bandages

He wore the vest. When he snuck from my room this morning he'd been go, lingering kisses and long glances. Meliodas hadn't been to his room the entire evening and after everything that happened, I had forgotten about the gift. He'd changed and must have come right back as I'd been dressing and exposed when he popped back in.

It looked good on him, the pointed front panels reached his mid thigh and he had white pants to match the buttons. "You must know my body pretty well, eh Elizabeth?" Meliodas jokes, eyes sparkling. He admired my carvings, a half smile on as he asked why I chose his demon mark.

"It's a part of you, so of course I like it." I beam at him, wondering why he was wary about it. Did he not like that I knew the demon mark so well I could carve it? My answer seemed to put him in a better mood. That morning we sat against the wall, opposite the cave rooms eating berries from the 'bowl' garden. We talked about traveling back to our clans together. That Mael and Chandler wouldn't be happy about it but they could stuff it.

I laughed at his phrasing.

"I'll miss you when it's back to seeing you every couple days," I confess softly. It seemed like ages ago that we were meeting at the theatre. Even Meliodas visiting the Goddess Clan seemed long ago. With the treaty being finalized today, along with Drole and Meliodas' fight scheduled for today, our time was coming to a close. I worried how this would work long term.

"We'll find a way, Elizabeth." Meliodas vows, while I thought for a moment he could read my mind but flushed as I realized I had just told him I'd missed seeing him so often. He must not want to go so long between being together too. I held his hand.

"I hope Mael is agreeable to traveling together." I shiver, thinking of the Necropolis. I had already told Meliodas about the entrance into the city of the dead, he promised to fight any ghost that dared look at me. I smiled, thinking of it.

"I'll talk to him," Meliodas said as the others started to rise. Mael was in a better mood this morning, asking me to wash all our clothes and I offer to take Meliodas' too since I doubted Chandler was doing it. He beamed at me, hands behind his back as he admitted he didn't have anything clean left. I laughed, but Mael scowled.

The representatives went off and Gerheade was on washing duty too, so we went ourselves. "We're leaving in the morning." She told me, and I wondered if we were too. The fairy clan is on the other edge of the goddess territory and I thought, Mael would be more likely to agree if the Fairies set out with us. We washed together, bringing our wet clothes outside, hanging them on the ropes we'd strung up between the boulders.

I spent some time with Black Beauty, laughing with Gerheade as she mocked her brother following Drole around. "If a giant and fairy could fit together..." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Speaking of fitting together, you must have nerves of steel getting so close to Meliodas as you do."

"He isn't scary," I tell her. Then I thought of him on the battlefield. Maybe he could be.

"Are you going to watch the fight?" She inquired, "because then you will see him in all his terrifying glory. I know it's just a fun thing between Dole and him but I bet he goes demon." She physically shook from the idea. I laugh at her reaction. Maybe it had been weird that I'd seen Meliodas' demon and asked him to taste me rather than scream or run?

When the final meeting adjourned and the giants were an official part of the treaty, Drole and Meliodas agreed to meet in an hour to fight. They were meeting out in the open, outside of Megadozer, by the tallest boulder between here and the forests. At least now it made sense why nothing grew around Megadozer. Giants ran a muck out there, killing anything they stomped on and fighting in the dirt.

Mael had asked me to make sure I had everything packed and I complied. "The demons can travel with us if they leave when we do and don't mind a detour. I've told Meliodas this already." I beam at Mael, giving his arm a squeeze in thanks. He looks down at my hand and gives a little nod. "Thank you for your help this trip, you've been a blessing." I grow hot under his praise.

He hadn't given me many compliments, not that he ever demeaned me, but it was nice to hear. I didn't have much so packing my things away didn't take long. I left an outfit on top to change into in the morning. Mael was still packing when I went to watch the fight. It wasn't hard to spot where to go as so many giants were gathered there. I flew high, finding Tins among the men. He was beside a shoulder high boulder and I landed there, talking to him a bit while keeping an eye out for Meliodas.

Drole was here. Already stretching.

"This is going to be an epic showdown. Meliodas the Destroyer vs Drole the King of Giants." Tins said "I can feel the tension. Neither of them will get out of this unscathed."

"I would wear these scars with pride," Alloya spoke, pushing another giant out of the way to stand on the other side of the boulder I sat on. "This battle will go down in clan history." But her words only made me worry. Already my hands were clasped before my heart, my fingers digging into each other.

Gloxinia and Gerheade flew overhead other giants in the distance and I waved them over. There was enough room up here for us all and they settled in. "Mael was looking for you." Gloxinia informed me but just then Meliodas had arrived, walking around the giant's feet crowded around in a large circle. Drole was already in the center.

"I'm ready," Drole called, all four arms T'd out before dropping to his side.

"Just a second, I have something I have to do," Meliodas calls out, jumping high and he came down to land in a crouch a foot or so in front of me. He undid the buttons of the vest I gave him while leaning in, giving me a slow, soft kiss. I flush, as the crowd goes 'oh' and 'ah'. "I don't want this to get ruined," Meliodas says, shedding his vest to lay it beside me. As he leans, he whispers. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. Don't heal me, until we've left here." He winked, turning back to hop off the boulder and face Drole. He'd asked me a few times now to leave him wounded and I frowned, thinking it would be hard to see him broken while not fixing it.

It's the giants way.

"Be careful," I call out, grateful that Mael really had told Meliodas we would be leaving together but too nervous to give Mael another thought. Meliodas looked at me, over his shoulder, and gave me a cocky grin, eyes sparkling emeralds.

Drole spoke, his deep voice explaining that no one was to interfere, that the fight was over when one of them couldn't rise. "Be light on your feet as your injuries are your own to bare if you don't get out of our way" and my wings fluttered nervously. I'd watch Tins face off in his challenges, but this was on another level. This would be bloody.

The giants all spread out, widening the battlefield and I watched Meliodas walk with Drole to the center. I could see the Giants big smile, gazing down at Meliodas. He looked so small out there but the thought scattered as Drole spoke again.

"Out of respect I tell you, I won't hold back and I expect the same." Drole boomed. My spine stiffened and I felt Gerheade's hand on my shoulder. She squeezed it, gently.

"Well, if you put it that way-" I feel the air change, the hot sun on its decent down having nothing on the chill Meliodas emitted. He went demon, the darkness swirling over his bare torso and looking stark against his white pants and tanned flesh. Gerheades hand fell away just as quickly as it came.

"Begin," Drole said, and for a long heartbeat... nothing happened. It was like a collectively held breath before they each slid low into a stance, in sync. They circled around one another, waiting for the other to make the first move. Drole pounded his right foot in a loud stomp, dropping to hit the ground with his fist as a boulder rose under Meliodas. Or, it would have, Meliodas was gone, moving fast.

I heard it, the hits, but Meliodas was moving too quickly and Drole was dodging, moving in a circle as he bent. Like a dance. The ground rumbled, the continuous slams of Meliodas's fists on Drole were like fireworks. Drole's arm came out and caught Meliodas, slamming him into the ground, the earth buckled under him and I gasp, covering my mouth as he hopped out of the hole and laughed.

"Bastard." Meliodas spit on the ground, blood there. Drole came for another attack, slamming his fists where Meliodas just stood and in the dust and rubble, I couldn't make anything out for a calm moment. Murmurs in the crowd began until Meliodas was seen, standing on the back of Droles head, which was smashed into the ground in a crater just like the one Meliodas' body had made.

Drole rose, the two trading blows. It was a back and forth of speed, might, and sneaky attacks. I didn't think either had the upper hand as they were matching blow for blow. Drole took a solid hit to the chest, his ribs cracking and the two separated, panting and staring the other down. Drole began his dance again, firing up spears of rock from the ground to keep Meliodas on his toes. As Meliodas dodged to the right he was caught and impaled. Drole had made more spikes extend from the spears he'd already risen from the ground and it had caught him unaware.

Meliodas pushed off the spear with his feet, stretching to remove the stone jutting from his stomach. He had a hole. That's when the fight took a turn. Meliodas' darkness spread, a ball of it forming and he punched Drole with the dark orb, causing the huge giant to be tossed in the air and the spectators on that side of the arena scattered as he hit the earth and tumbled. Drole rose, a wave of earth forming behind Meliodas. I rose to my feet as it slammed into him, taking him down into the earth.

"Meliodas!" I screamed, but my voice was amid many giants wincing and groaning as if they felt his pain. Drole rose his fist in the air as if to declare victory but a second later the earth exploded upward in purple and black flames as if a bomb was detonated and Meliodas climbed out, struggling to his feet, but rising. No... it wasn't over. I wanted it to be over.

Drole chuckled, limping forward. Then they were running, meeting in the center, rushing to one another. Droles head is slammed to the left and Meliodas it caught with a hit from Drole's fourth arm and the two descend to the ground, the two of them smashing into it with such force it feels like an earthquake. The boulder we are on, cracks and the three of us fly into the air from the fissure in the earth the impact created.

I hover there, frozen, watching Meliodas' sprawled form. Neither of them rises and some of the giants call out their names. "Drole, up! Come on!" and I heard a "Meliodas, keep fighting," but neither of them stirred. For long, silent moments, no one moves.

"Should we call it?" Alloya asked, looking over at her friends on her other side.

Tins brother came forward, stomping over between the two fallen fighters. He toed Meliodas and rocked Drole but neither of them moved. "I say, a draw!" He shouted and the Giants cursed, cheered and called to one another to 'drink to the draw'. The spectators were scattering, Yumars was helping to carry Drole with another Giants help but I flew around them, going to Meliodas.

He was bleeding from his stomach wound, half his face was swollen. Tears welled and I couldn't heal him. He asked me not to and it would be a violation of our trust, plus an insult to the giants if I did. Tentatively, I brushed his bloody hair from his head and his one eye opened.

"Eliza... beth." He groaned, still managing a little smile on his abused face. I leaned forward, kissing him before apologizing.

"This is going to hurt, Meliodas, but I must get you inside." I took his non-broken arm and bent to loop it over my shoulders and he winced as I wrapped my arm around his torso to prop him up. When I thought of flying him, without jostling him too much, I knew it would be impossible. That's when Gloxinia dropped to Meliodas' other side. He smiled over at me, taking his broken arm and mirroring my position.

We flew, slow and steady with Meliodas dangling between us. Tins and Alloya walked with us, making the other giants steer clear. Some called out praise to Meliodas, others asking if he would live. His heart beats were steady, and he promised earlier he would be fine by morning. I believed in him.

Inside, we brought Meliodas straight to his room. Gloxinia stayed with him as I gathered Rou's knife from my room and the dress I had set out, my pants and underwear scattered in my rush. I cut strips from the fabric. If I couldn't heal Meliodas, the least I could do is clean and dress his wounds. Gerheade brought me water from the bathing room. I used another cut of my dress to wash him.

"Thank you, both for your help," I tell Gloxinia and Gerheade, as I realize it's just what's under his pants that I need to clean and dress now. His arms, head, and torso were on the mend. They make their excuses, leaving me to it. I use his blanket to cover him over the waist as I untie his pants and wiggle them free, under him. His calf is shredded and I have a hard time not healing it as the muscles are severed. I take a deep breath, wrapping it a little tighter to hold the strands of his insides together with the bandage. His thigh had an open wound and when I washed the rubble from it, Meliodas winced in his sleep.

"I'm sorry," I tell his unconscious face. "But if I don't get the rocks out, your skin might heal over them." When I finished, I wrapped the blanket around him and kiss his forehead. How could he be fine to travel by morning? Sleep wasn't magic.

Chandler arrived, looking between the two of us with a scowl. "The young master needs his rest, run along little girl." I frown, wanting to stay by his side. I take his hand, my thumb rubbing over his knuckles when Chandler speaks again. "Mael!" He calls out, tattling. "I found your girl."

Mael flies up moments later, not stepping into Meliodas' cave room but hovering at the entrance. He takes in the scene, Meliodas' bandages and Chandler. Mael let out a long sigh as if very disappointed. "I told that demon I wanted to set out tonight." I grow hot, my face burning as I realize why Mael had been looking for me before the fight. "Elizabeth, I like to travel by night. You know that." I did, that's how we left the goddess clan and made such great time.

"We can't wait until morning?" I ask and he seems regretful, looking over at Meliodas' passed out form.

"If that's all the time he would need, but with those wounds and his refusal to be healed to abide by the giants' customs..." Mael waved his hand as if the point made itself. I felt panic grip at my chest. I had to leave. Meliodas would need time to heal and I couldn't expect Mael to put off his duties. He would never agree to leave me with them, especially with Meliodas being in this state. Meliodas didn't trust Chandler with me more than he had too, Mael would never agree to that.

"Okay," I whisper, my welled tears falling. Flowers bloomed at my feet and I was careful not to cry on Meliodas, as they healed on their own. "Let me say goodbye." Mael nodded, dropping down and out of sight but Chandler stays and I frown at him. With last minute adjustments to Meliodas' bandages and his blanket, I kiss him, gently. I don't want to say any soft words in front of Chandler so I go, looking back. I hoped he healed fast. Maybe he could catch up to us.

With a last look, I glided down. I held a finger up to Mael, waiting below and I made my way to my room. I shoved my fallen pants back into my packed bag but stopped at the pair of white panties laying on the floor, scattered from my rush when needing something to cut up for Meliodas' bandages. With a sad grin, I left the pair on my desk, my own little goodbye to Meliodas when he woke and tried to find me. I grabbed the demon coin from my pack and tucked it against my chest inside the fabric of my dress, the only thing of Meliodas I had.

I left Rou's blade by the fire, laying in the spot he usually sat in the mornings. Hya agreed to take out the 'bowl' garden after everyone left. Black Beauty was happy to see me and nudged at my face. I hadn't gotten to say goodbye to anyone I'd made friends with, everyone is probably drinking themselves silly after that fight. Our horses were already saddled up and I added my bag across his back.

We set off and rode in silence. My tears dried up halfway across the vast open, barren ground, blooming flowers in our wake. I spotted the patch of flowers where Meliodas had fallen. He was strong. The strongest man I knew, he would be okay. We'd go our separate ways and see each other again, meeting at the theater ruins. It had been our plan, I'd stick to it and knowing I'd see him again, I would endure.

We were a few hours in when I realized we weren't heading in the same direction we came. We should have hit some of the closest farms by now. Were we skipping the Necropolis? I hoped, but also that's the way Meliodas would think we were going... I'd face the ghosts again if it meant he would catch up to us.

"Mael?" I asked and he turned to look my way from atop his horse. "Where are we going?" I was curious.

"I told you, we must make a detour." He remarked, looking confused. "We are to find Dabuzu. After we commission a very important piece from him, then we can head home." I nod, hoping the information I had gathered days ago could be relied on. It took us all night and into the morning before we found what Mael was looking for. The hermit Giant Dabuzu. It wasn't like his hut was small, but it was a stone relief in the mountainside and it didn't stand out much with how it was created to blend into its surroundings.

I could tell just from the entrance of this giant home that his earth-magic is astounding.

Dabuzu is a small giant, in giant terms. He had a bushy beard and clothing that draped over his shoulders in layers, his hands, feet and face the only skin that showed. He was different than the others I'd met, his eyes were even a white-opaque color that made me think he must be blind but he looked right at us. He didn't want guests, asked us to state our business and go. Mael retrieved the paper Ludociel had given him, holding up the plans. "Ludociel, leader of the Archangels, of the goddess clan, sent us, his two messengers." Dabuzu scowled.

"That's a little paper." The giant said, turning with heavy foot falls, dismiss us.

"Yes, but it's the plans for ending the holy war, once and for all." The Giants' steps stop, he looks over his shoulder, pointing at Mael.

"You can come in. You alone." Mael agrees, dismounting and handing me the reigns of his horse. He told me he would try to make this quick, but when he entered the stone time passed dreadfully slow. I lead the horses to a tree, tying them to a low branch so they could lay if they wanted. From the waterskin, I gave them each a drink. I flipped my demon coin, pulled out my blanket and sat against the tree.

Was Meliodas healed? I knew while I was here, he wouldn't find us. My hope of traveling together dimmed. Maybe it would take our entire journey back just for him to recover? I understood why he didn't want my healing, but I frowned. The one thing I could do for him and he didn't want it. Perhaps if he knew I would be leaving without him, he would have changed his mind?

I must have drifted off as I woke to Mael shaking my shoulder. Immediately my hand came to cover my lips and Mael frowned, spotting it. He had the decency to blush and look away. "We can sleep inside, for the day. Our commission will take some time, we may have to return when he sends for us." I nodded, gathering up my blanket and following him inside.

I wouldn't be returning here with Mael though, he would have to pick up his statue on his own or find another second. Meliodas and I had dismissed this commission from Ludociel as nothing but a commemoration but now I didn't think it was. As soon as I stepped inside the cave, of much nicer design and more refined than Megadozer, I felt Dabuzu's power pouring into a block of stone. With the bursts of it, pouring into the mineral every few minutes I had a hard time relaxing. I knew sleep would be impossible, from the foreign power and from the lack of Meliodas at my side. I rose to speak to Dabuzu, with Mael sleeping on the patch of moss he had led us too, but Dabuzu only said he was proud to be working on something so remarkable.

The giant had etched the design of the circle stone statue into the smooth wall where he worked and I studied it. A fairy with a long curved wing made up the left side, the wing arched around the next piece, with people praying. The center had an indentation of a strange design, a loop with two handles sticking straight up. Besides that, with the fairy's hand reaching into it, was a giants face, earth erupting from it. The far right section was a goddess with wings curving in the circle shape, a horn blowing from their mouth.

Maybe it was the clans coming together? If the demon's designed piece wasn't finished yet, in the center then it would be the perfect 'self-congratulatory' statue of ending the war. It was just the power Dabuzu was using that unnerved me. Unless Loduciel wanted it to do something... My mind ran rampant.

Each clan would be given one and if they touched the stone they could talk to anyone in another part of the clan that was also touching the stone. Or, teleportation. You picked the place, one of the five clans and bam, you were there. Or it would crack if the treaty was broken and it was an instant call to war. I frowned.

Why wasn't the demons piece conceptualized? Is that the blank handle bit? I wished Meliodas was here.

Wait... Hadn't Mael said the demons could come if they left when he did and didn't mind a detour? This was our detour. It couldn't be anything ominous if Meliodas and Chandler may have potentially come with us. Dabuzu sent another bout of power into the stone, his hairy, dirty face glowing creepily from the light of it. I'd ask Mael about it when he woke up and when we saw each other next, I'd tell Meliodas.

I hoped I would see him soon. I'd go to our theater every evening when we got back.


	17. Apart

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Seventeen: Apart

They moved it.

Of course, they did.

My eyes welled and I breathed deeply until my panic passed. Our trip home had taken twice as long as our trip to Megadozer, and not in the fun way of seeing the ocean or the sights. We had lingered at Dabuzu's, had set out late the next night but the only good thing about the whole trip is we skipped the Necropolis.

Mael had been in better spirits since we left the hermit giants home. "Ludociel will be pleased, with your help this was all possible." I took it at face value. I asked Mael what the statue would do and he told me not to worry just yet. "It's all for the end of the war." His blanket statement could have many meanings, but since the war is over...

None of that seemed to matter that much as we traveled farther and farther from the theater.

"Did you know the City was going to move?" I asked Mael, looking over my shoulder at the direction I wished I was going in.

"Yes," Mael said. "Didn't you? We just had every clan running through our city streets, of course, we moved. There is safety in being well hidden and mobile." I grew hot, thinking it was stupid I hadn't thought this would happen. I could have warned Meliodas but I was so hopeful with this treaty, that I hadn't thought about the goddess clan's floating city or its next action.

It took hours. Long hours until a pair of Goddess Warriors found us. "Welcome home Mael and Lady Elizabeth." They were in full armor, helms on, their group had been assigned the task of searching for us when we returned and leading us home. The four of us traveled another hour, they were excited to have us back and told us about all the changes now that women were in positions of power.

We were close to the Fairy King's Forest, I could see the fog in the far distance as we flew up to the massive clouds overhead that hid my city. I couldn't muster up a proper smile like the others as we walked through the gates to cheers and shouts. It would take me more than six hours to fly, at my top speed, to the theater. One way. There was no way I could go there, have any time at all with Meliodas, and be able to fly back without being noticed.

A few hours away from the temple is normal for me but this? There would be too many questions, possibly a search party. Lady Graelle ran up then, giving me a hug and asking how my very first adventure was and I grow hot. Thinking of my other first in Megadozers falls. Emilee and the kids are there, with a fat puppy, Estarossa. The puppy runs and I crouch to accept his wet kisses. Emilee had his things in a little sack and I took them, thanking them for taking care of the little guy for me.

While Mael is reuniting with Ludociel I fly back to the Temple with my things and Estarossa, telling Lady Graelle everything I learned about the giants. The fights, the clothes, and the openness. "It was wonderful," I tell her, but she knows something isn't right with me, asking why I look so upset. "Now that I know what it's like I'm afraid I'll never have it again." A few things coming to mind but she understands I mean more than just seeing another part of the world.

"You're young. Your life is just beginning." She reassures but I tell her I'm tired after such a journey and ask to retire to my room. Jelamet hadn't been there to greet me and I frowned. I thought given some time she would warm up to me again. I flew to my room, taking in the small feeling of my home, my bed, and room after living in a giants city where everything was oversized. Estarossa's happy wiggling cheered me. I started unpacking when my thoughts grew suspicious.

Did Ludociel move the city to keep me from Meliodas? How could he have known that we met anywhere! They couldn't know... Moving made sense but so far from our demon border neighbors? It was intentional but probably had nothing to do with me. With my dresses, pants and blanket returned to their proper places, I frowned. Oh no. I checked my chest, the bottom of my bag and shook out my clothes.

The Demon coin was gone.

I felt the lining of my sack and just there, I find a hole that could easily fit my finger. I lost it. I knew I had it last night, I had clutched it to my chest and I remembered putting it in my bag but from then to now, it fell out. With a heavy feeling settling over me, I sat on my bed. I didn't have anything of his, our rendezvous is impossible and we didn't have a way to talk to one another. Tears welled, falling free as I curled up, under my blanket, Estarossa jumping up to lay beside me.

"Meliodas will find a way. He promised." I tell the puppy snuggling into its fur.

I fell asleep like this against Estarossa, a small replacement for Meliodas, for the next few days. I wrote letters, which I didn't have a way to send, but they made me feel better. They were folded on my desk and tucked inside the book I had resting there. With so much time to kill, I'd been assigned Hostess with Lady Urina- who took it much more seriously then Jelamet and I ever had, combined. I think Mistress Mabel was trying to force me to get over 'that no good devil' but I never accepted the offers to 'talk' or 'sit with' any of the men who came.

Before ladies had options, the meet and greets would be full of all the ladies of the Temple. Now, there is only a handful of them. It made me smile a little, thinking at least they were free now. Jobs were posted in the Archangel compound and I found myself checking them every day for anything that required traveling. The posting for troops training was a constant. Everyone was still preparing for war, in spite of the treaty.

Lady Graelle released me from my hostess duty and I asked if I could visit Gerheade. She agreed and I flew to my room to check on Estarossa. He had food and was snuggled up. But as I turned to go, I spotted the book with my three letters tucked inside. Instead of the Fairy Forest, I could risk it and take a shot at possibly seeing Meliodas. I wrapped the letters up and tied them with a turquoise ribbon, tucking them under my arm and sneaking out. It had been so long since I snuck out; before I had left for Megadozer.

The flying was strenuous. I stuck to the cloud cover to stay undetected, reinvigorating myself a handful of times but as the hours past in flight I grew anxious. It had been over a week since I'd been with Meliodas. It felt so long. If it wasn't for Estarossa I didn't think I could keep myself together. In the letters tucked against my chest I told Meliodas how much I missed him, but not too much as I didn't want him to worry about me. That and Dabuzu's visit were the most important things I wrote about.

The rest of it seemed silly now that he'd actually read them. Did I have to write about Jelamet? Or Lady Urina and the silly hosting I did?

I hoped to give the letters to him in person as it was different hearing from written text that I now lived more than six hours from the theater. I could see it, through the clouds and I flew overhead, not wanting to be spotted and dropped to the ruins. My heart pounded but I knew he wasn't here. I would have felt him. I strolled forward, across the stage and up the steps, something glinting in the sun.

On the center seat, front row, gold demon coins sat. He couldn't have known I lost mine. No. He just wanted me to know he'd come. That we missed one another. He recovered and healed! He had traveled home safely. Of course, he had. I sat my letters in the same spot as his gold, then I thought of the rain and looked around.

Upon the viewing section, there was a goddess statue holding up a bowl. I flew there, letters in hand and I stuck them in the crack of her breasts, knowing the bowl above would protect against the rain if it fell this high up. Also, Meliodas did like looking at breasts, my face grows hot but I don't move them. To make sure he spotted them, I gathered some rubble and arranged them in arrow shapes, one on the viewing balcony to point to the statue and one on the stage.

I had prolonged my time as long as I could. With a heavier heart and a demon coin in my fist, I headed back to the goddess city, taking to the clouds again. The whole way home I thought of all the silly ramblings I had put in those letters. Meliodas probably didn't care about Estarossa learning to shake. Or that the puppy didn't like Ludociel at all, that I could tell when he was near as Estarossa always got his back up and guarded my legs.

I yearned to see him. Wishing so bad that I could have touched him, saddened that we had missed one another.

I snuck back home, not drawing any attention when I let Estaross out. We went back to my room and I fell asleep, exhausted.

If anyone had noticed, no one said a thing about me being gone. Lady Graelle treated me as she always had and Mistress Mabel still tried to get me to host another event. I filled my quota for this month though and she knew she couldn't assign it to me any longer without an excuse from all the others in the Temple of why they couldn't perform their duties.

Estarossa and I walked for a while through the city the next day. I threw a stick and he would return it. With no real destination in mind, I headed to check the jobs board. Emilee, now the new head of Charity's home, had a posting up today. She needed an assistant. That would be fun! I thought about it but I dismissed it. I grew up in Charity home and if I went back, I wouldn't be moving forward in life. The wind blew, whipping my hair around and the pinned poster of the troops, old and worn at this point, ripping from its pins. I tried to catch it, but it swished out of reach and I let it go.

That's when I spotted it. There was a job under the troops' flyer. A dignitary position, one needed for each of the main clans. Meliodas had told me about this long ago, asked if I would be interested when the treaty was still being hashed out. That I would be perfect to take the one for the Demon clan, a way to bridge the gap between us! What better way to reach the demons than to live among them, learn their way and change their view of goddesses one heart at a time? My own raced.

I rushed inside, finding Nerobasta drinking tea at her receptions desk in the side room of the compound. "I need the application." I rushed and she looked at me, wide-eyed in alarm. "The Demon Clans dignitary job." I continue when she doesn't respond.

"Uh... Well..." She starts, the tips of her ears turning red, stark against her fair hair. Her huge bosom shook when she stood, not that she could help that with how well endowed she is. "I'll have to find it. When I do I'll send it over." I frown.

"I'll just wait," I tell her and she fumbles through her folders. She opens some drawers and looks at me in alarm every so often.

"The posting has to be up for another week before we review the applications and even then, once someone is accepted we must wait for the Demon's Clan to approve it... This is a new job so it requires a lot of countermeasures. This could take weeks." She stressed, and I shrug. I'd jump through the hoops and I'm sure Meliodas will do the Demon Clan side of things. After putting it off long enough, she goes to her desk and pulls a file out, handing me a few pieces of parchment. "Return them to be processed." She sighs and I snag them from her.

"Thanks, Nerobasta," I beamed, understanding why this job was covered up the way it was. "I'll be back. Every day if I have to be." She looked mortified and I left with the pages in my arms. Estarossa and I didn't go home, we went to Charity's Home for a visit. The kids fussed over the puppy a hundred times more than me. Emilee waved, ducking out for a moment to herself as soon as she saw me. That's fine, that girl needed it. I set myself up at the table, the kids getting me some ink and a quill to fill out the Goddess Clan Ambassador and Dignitary pages. I had the pedigree and influence of my mother. This would work.

For my own self, I made a copy, careful with the lines and making sure it looked very close to exact. I could travel between the clans! I would be granted a stipend and all in the name of peace. This is perfect for me. Almost as if it had been created with me in mind. Had Meliodas planned this while working out the treaty? When I finish making the copy, the kids all wanting to color their own pages to 'do art with me', we do and I play a game of hoop-ball with them when they are done with art.

Emilee joins in and we are on opposite teams. It's fun and I'm so excited about seeing Meliodas again that I'm... happy. Estarossa and I go home, sharing our news with Lady Graelle, who tells me how it does sound like this position is perfect for me. "I'll put my two sense in with the Priest and the Council. That should speed the process up. I didn't even know this was part of the treaty!"

When I explained how the job was under another on the jobs board, and that Nerobasta had acted like a flustered fool when I'd asked about it, Lady Graelle's lips pursed and she chided that woman for being shifty. "Always listening to Ludociel, that one." She warned and when her duties called her away, I wished I had either Meliodas or Jelamet to talk to about this. I didn't have anyone else here.

The thought of seeing Meliodas again, to have something that resembled a future with him, I slept easy that night. The first one without the clutches of loneliness tainting my dreams. I dressed and headed out early. On our way to the compound, Estarossa keeps pace with me, and I drop off the application. It's there, as I'm leaving Nerobasta's office when I see her.

Jelamet.

She'd taken to being a fighter and from her armor, she must have done very well. I step in her direction but she doesn't smile at me. Mael is beside her and he gives me a small wave in acknowledgment before saying "I'm sure you've missed one another. We can continue this later, Jelamet."

Mael's sabatons clanking against the tile echoes between us. She looks good, fierce. I wasn't used to her having short hair but it looked nice on her.

"Are you staying at the Temple?" I hesitated and I watch as she assesses me, even Estarossa gets the same long dismissive glance.

"No." She says. "I'll walk you out." Jelamet turns and I rush to keep up, taking to the air after her when we make it outside. She stops, hovering over the steps and I mirror her, facing her with hope. Why did this feel awkward? We'd been friends for years and years...

"I've missed you," I tell her, wanting to explain so much about the Giants and Meliodas.

"Are you still with that Demon?" Jelamet doesn't react as I flinch as her tone, her eyes flashing some kind of emotion I wasn't used to seeing in her. She'd never looked at me with that expression before.

"I haven't seen him in a while," I confess to her out of the habit of being honest with her. I grow hot when she smirks, cruelly. "I want too, though, he'll come for me." As long as the application is accepted then I would be granted an escort, one I could choose and I marked 'from the demon clan' so I hoped it was approved, but I had a backup plan if-

"Naive as ever." She scowls. "Let me guess, he took what he wanted from your body and then bam, he was gone." I flinched, growing hot. We had orgasmed together. "Men like that demon only want one thing, to get off. Cum their brains out and then nothing. Take my advice, move on. Find something else to focus on, he'll just let you down."

Jelamet turns in the sky, returning to the compound doors. When she reached the frame, I dropped to the stairs calling out after her. "You're wrong!" I exclaimed, Estarossa flopping his round rump down the steps. I sat, scratching under the puppies ear, my chest aching. Meliodas was right, I had lost her. The hope I had that we could get past whatever was in Jelamets heart died.

With shaky legs I stood, feeling wobbly and I frown, looking around me to see if anyone noticed. Meliodas?! He was sitting, where he used to while eating lunch together, his legs wide and elbows on his knees. His easy, kind smile shined and I reached forward as he shimmered to dust, blowing with the wind.

"Oh... not now..."

I felt my head but knew the answer already. Another fever. Estarossa trailed me as I made my way to the temple, flying just over him as I didn't trust my legs. Lady Graelle always knew what to do with me, so I flew to her office. She wasn't there and I laid on her couch, Estarossa climbing up with me.

It was sometime later that she woke me. "Oh, sweet Elizabeth. Another one?!" Her hands try to heal but this isn't an ailment, it's just more power funneling into me. She assists me up, flying us up to lead me to my room.

"Estarossa." I plead, hearing my poor pup whimper as we fly up to the hallway to my room. She relents with a little purse to her lips while laying me in my bed.

"I'll get the puppy and a bathing bowl. Maybe some tea." Lady Graelle feels my head, getting the blankets out from under me and covering me up. "Rest." but her worried face blurred before me, and I fell asleep without Estarossa for the first time since my return home.

I remember liquid, swallowing heavy.

A cold, wet nose nudging my face.

Water dripping, a rag on my forehead.

I dreamt of Meliodas. Of his warm liquid eyes, and I fought waking, trying to stay with him in any way I could. I heard my name. Emilee was here? Good, she could meet... where did Meliodas go? I felt Lady Graelle's healing hands on me. In the darkness that surrounded me, I felt like a sponge that sucked the light from this place with no escape hatch now that the job was done.

Opening my eyes felt like I was lifting the heavy goddess gates myself, and everything looked tinted.

"Oh!" Lady Graelle said, relief and kindness in her voice. "There you are." She moved the rag, taking it off my head. "It was close there, in the middle, and the end," leaning forward she kisses my forehead. "Elizabeth, I bless you- be well." Where her blessing touched, a cool sensation shivered through me.

"How-" Woah, my voice scratched and I didn't recognize it as my own. I cleared my throat, so dry. "How long have I been out?"

"Six days." She answers, as my eyes focus I look her over, her wrinkles looked deeper. Face tight with tension, but easing. I've had longer. Not for years though. I had been hopeful they were getting shorter and easier to recover from but apparently not. With Lady Graelle's expression, I must have been close to death. "You need to eat, to get your strength back up, I'll be back with some food. Don't fall asleep."

I watch her go. A wet nose touched the hand dangling off my bed and I weakly scratched at his chin. "Hey, boy," I say, struggling to sit up. He was starting to get his coloring, turning from the white puppy I remember to have brown ears and on his side, a circle little shape was appearing. "You're growing up, huh?" I ask, my chest aching. It had nothing to do with the fever. I missed Meliodas and now it's been two weeks.

Had he received my letters?


	18. Night Visitor

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Eighteen: Night Visitor

Two more days without him and today, finally, I felt physically well enough to bathe. From all the sweat and stickiness I was surprised the water didn't turn. I dressed, sneaking out before Lady Graelle could keep me inside. She's kept a close eye on me to prevent me from straining myself. Estarossa knew it was a stealth mission, scouting and reporting back with a puppy grin.

My partner in crime always had a puppy grin though, so I had no idea if the path was clear or not.

Out in the sun I felt even better, soaking in the rays as I took to the streets, to distance myself from the eyes at the temple. I needed to check on Nerobasta's progress. I hadn't heard but I hadn't been back since I submitted the thing. I had told her I'd be back daily and if she used that against me I would be upset.

"Come on, Rossa" I called, gliding over the puppy to make him run. He'd been just as cramped up as I had been, staying by my side. Lady Graelle hadn't liked the dog in her temple before, but now she smiled ruefully at his antics, telling me Estarossa always had a home there. She even helped me fill out the goddess clan paperwork so he was officially one of us, the Temple was listed as his home residence.

I wanted to make another trek out to the theater. Maybe I could camp out the night there and come back the next day. After that fever though, I knew it would take time for Lady Graelle to agree to it. She'd never said a word against Meliodas, she worried about my reputation, about people being cruel to me but she'd never been opposed to anything I'd chosen for myself.

When we neared the steps of the compound I dropped to my feet, walking up. The place had a lot of troops in it, all gathered around in groups but I didn't stand out as I walked through the people. None of them were in their armor. Nerobasta's door was closed and I knocked. After a breath, and Rossa crouching at my feet his chest rumbling, Ludociel cleared his throat behind me. The door opened as if Nerobasta was called from his presence alone.

Nerobasta instantly battered her eyes at the Archangel over my shoulder, I smiled, thinking Ludociel had to know how she felt.

"I'm glad to see you are well again, Elizabeth," Ludociel resounded, humor in his voice. "Fevers at your age, it's just a reminder that you are still a child." My face grows hot but it gets my back up. I ignore him, addressing Nerobasta.

"I'm here to check the status of becoming the Goddess representative," I state and Nerobasta freezes, her gaze shifting from Ludociel to me.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I asked Nerobasta to wait to process your request, as your fever could have altered your decision making at the time of submission." Ludociel goaded and Estarossa at my feet growls, his chest rumbling having deepened. I felt the same way, pup.

"Well, it hadn't. Please process it." I tell Nerobasta who flops her mouth open, then closed. "What do you need?" I ask, and again I do not address him, and yet he answers.

"Approval from the council and then we send the application off to the demons representative for their own assessment. From there you have to select your guard, make travel arrangements and accommodations." Ludociel explained it like it was just too much hassle, but it sounded like I needed to go to the council and not the compound. I could handle the council.

"In that case, can I have my application back?" I asked Nerobasta and finally, she answered.

"You'll need Ludociel's signature too." Nerobasta replied, haughty, spinning to go into her office.

"Mael told me about Meliodas, he didn't follow through with his promise." His words echo and I frown, it wasn't like he had a choice. Wait, how could he possibly know that Meliodas promised to travel back with us? Had Meliodas told Mael? Did their talk go that deep? "He could come here, he is the representative to his clan and from the treaty, at any time we can request dignitary status ourselves."

"Oh."

Well, it's only been two weeks since he'd returned. Maybe he had things he needed to do in his clan. He'd been away a long while for negotiations here and then again at Megadozer. If I could just talk to him, I would know. Jelamet's words came to mind, but I shook my head, seeing so clearly in my mind Meliodas' soft gaze and open smile.

Nerobasta came back, the application in her hand. I accepted it back, looking at Ludociel. If I wanted him to sign this, then I needed to appeal to his logical side.

"Ask Mael how well I acclimated to the Giants culture, how easy it was for me to find out information. Dabuzu was all me. I have an inside man, the Demon Prince himself." Ludociel looks alarmed for a flash before my words sink in. "If you ever needed an insider, you are looking at the most qualified person for the job. Sign this, I'll become the Demon Clan's Goddess ambassador and send you reports on what I learn."

It wasn't a lie.

"Council first." Ludociel chewed over the thought, "I'll think on it," but he looked at me with mild interest and I knew I had him. Ludociel was a man that loved information. He used what he knew and manipulated entire battlefields with it. If I did get this position, if he agreed, I'd have to be careful. Perhaps I could write long rambling letters about all the good qualities of the Demons, maybe I could change Ludociel's heart too.

With my application back in my hands, I headed to the council. No one was in. They were scheduled to meet tomorrow. My body was growing tired, too much activity after my fever. I stopped at Charity's home, more to sit and rest than visit. Estarossa and the kids played while I slowly became more tired, now that my body wasn't moving. I sighed, hoping I didn't spark another fever with all this.

"Mael has been here three times to see if I'd asked you to be my assistant. I'm getting fed up with that man." Emilee fumed, hair swaying and smile light as she handed me a cup of tea. It smelled of jasmine and I took it gratefully.

"I can't." I tell her. "I grew up here. If this is where I stay, I wouldn't have gotten far." She understands. Laughing at me as she tells me "You have too much fire. You change people for the better, laws for the better and it would be a grave injustice if I pressured you to stay here when you can shape the world."

Tears welled at her view of me. "Emilee!" I grab her hand and thank her. "That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in so long." And her words spark something in me. Confidence. Meliodas wanted to be with me. He asked me weeks ago to be the representative. He had gone to the theater, I had the coin as proof.

Ludociel, Jelamet, and Nerobasta had their own issues, they wouldn't influence me.

That night, while Rossa the pup curled up at my feet, I wrote another letter to Meliodas. If this is all we had for the next couple of weeks, I would do it. I told him about everything I needed to become a Dignitary. About what Emilee said to me and about my fever. I skimmed over how bad it had gotten, not wanting him to worry while we were apart.

It had taken me longer than I thought to gather all the signatures. Each Council member wanted to warn me about the demons, the danger I would be in, and what would happen if war broke out while I was under their care in enemy territory. "You are the supreme deity's daughter. Tell no one. You would be a very valuable bargaining chip if they ever wanted one."

Each time, they reluctantly signed, they gave me advice or begged me to be careful. Mister Jenkins had refused, telling me he wouldn't sign it, that it would mean my death but I brought in Lady Graelle. She straightened him out and with sad eyes, Mister Jenkins told me "You are too green, so young, to have such a heavy burden." I had frowned but Lady Graelle slapped the back of his head and said: "We were all green once."

My body felt fully recovered now, and I told Lady Graelle that I needed a day away. She agreed, eyeing me but shooing me away in a 'do what you must' way. I left early that next morning, letters in tow in another ribbon, this one of deeper blue. It had been three weeks since I'd seen him and I was starting to worry he would forget about me or move on when I knew in my heart... He was it for me.

I missed his smell, even his groping I longed for. After spending every day and night at Megadozer with him, it was a shock to my system to be severed from him now. I didn't want to be so far from him. He had become my best friend, the person I turned to with my fears and my thoughts. The skies were clear for most of the way and I flew fast and nervous until I hit some clouds. They were better to travel under.

Using my reinvigorate power, I made it to the theater by midday. I hadn't wanted to fly back in the night but thought, maybe I could stay until evening. Before, when we rendezvoused every three days, we usually met in the evening. He wasn't here. There were several gold coins left on the stone seat, front row again. I arrange them into an arrow, not wanting to take his money as I only needed one, but pointing him again to the goddess statue.

I made my way to the statue and my heart sank. My letters were still there. Wait. No ribbon. Did he write to me? I took the folded page out of the goddess' breast, sticking mine in there in exchange. I sat, hands shaking in excitement as I unfold the parchment. His handwriting is angled and sharp and I brush the tips of my fingers over the indentations there.

I read 'I'll find a way. Wait for me, Elizabeth.' Short and sweet, and then a scribbled note a few spaces down as if written days later. Maybe he had brought the letter and come back, saw it was still here and added to it? I hope he hadn't been upset to still see it here. 'Look into the Goddess Ambassador position.'

My letters already outlined what I had been doing to reach our goal, but seeing his words... of course, he and I were on the same page. I wouldn't be shaken. I will wait for you, Meliodas, but I wouldn't just twiddle my thumbs. I would finish getting my people to abide by this. I already had a backup in case something happened to the first with how 'accident prone' this had proven to be so far.

I've waited longer than I should. I would be flying into the night at this rate but still, I kick at the rubble, watching in the direction of the Demon Clan and holding out hope for a sign of him. Tears fell and I let them, missing Meliodas so much I actually hurt. Flowers bloomed in the dirt by the base of the pillar I leaned on, they are light blue moonflowers, growing tall in the wildflower mound that spread with each tear fall.

With a heavy heart, I took to the skies. The city didn't feel like my home anymore. Meliodas was my home and I was moving farther away. It felt unnatural.

If I had been born another's daughter, I could just slip away. His position is worse, as being Demon Prince he had duties along with his pedigree, something that would come to me as well with age. We hadn't spoken about it, but we had to both know, if either of us ran off to the other it would spark a war. Whether they call it abduction or a betrayal of our people, our clans would clash.

We had a way to do this peacefully. We both just had to be patient...

I arrived very late, Estarossa a big ball of excitement seeing me after so long. "It's been a few hours, pup. But I understand what it's like to miss someone." We snuggled up that night and I must have shed all my tears as they didn't come. Or perhaps, I was growing stronger, used to the ache in my soul as the world still turned without him. While I felt stuck...

With every council member's signature on both of my copies, I made my way to Ludociel. It had taken me three more days but I was so close I could taste it. My chest aches, but I was used to this feeling now, another limb on me. The four Archangels are in a meeting and I wait, sitting by the fountain and splashing Estarossa when I got too antsy.

Nerobasta asked if I wanted something to drink. I denied her but smile. She moved on, looking at me with pity but I didn't pay her any more mind. Sariel and Tamriel came out, both of them don't notice me as they are talking to one another with bowed heads, all of them, and I let them go by without saying a word.

With just Mael and Ludociel in the meeting chamber and the door just opened, I didn't feel strange going in. The roundtable was empty, the brothers talking to one another. Mael looked upset, Ludociel calm and explaining something. I coughed to announce myself and they both turn in tandem. Their long straight hair shifting over their shoulders, it was off-putting, seeing them move in the same way but I guess they are brothers.

"I need your signature, Ludociel." I hold up the sheets in my hand, Estarossa's back is at my feet, rumbling away.

"Later, Elizabeth." He dismisses, and Mael looks at me with a long, lingering expression.

"You volunteered to spy on the demon clan?" Mael questioned, "Even at the cost of your body?" He looked devastated and I balked. Cost of my body?

"Whoa! I'm trying to keep the peace. My main job would be simply teaching the demons what we value and learning their culture." I raise my shoulders back, growing hot. "My body is none of your business and I'm not going to use it to spy!" I frown, looking between the brothers. Ludociel looked like he was about to laugh while Mael looked frustrated.

"Later, Elizabeth. Go run along." Ludociel orders me with a little hand wave as if pushing me away with the back of his hand and I scowl, doing as he commanded. I did need him to do me this favor. Pestering wouldn't help my cause. What was one more day...

I tucked the papers inside my waistband, moving my dress over the top for them to stay flat and safe. Without anything to do, I felt useless. It should be so easy to fill out paperwork. Would Meliodas believe all the hoops I had to jump through to get this done? He had to deal with the goddesses before, the treaty had taken weeks, so... yeah, probably.

Paperwork...

Estarossa and I went home. We helped Lady Graelle and I even cleaned the prayer room just to keep my mind off of Meliodas. It's been almost a month! The time felt so much longer. Our shared memories the only thing that could raise my spirits for longer than a few moments or squeeze out a short smile.

That night, I slept restlessly, thinking of Ludociel holding the keys to my future. Of all people. It didn't help matters that Estarossa wouldn't stop flopping in his sleep. In the dead of night, his wet nose nudged my face and I pushed him away. He was insistent, pushing and pushing until I sat up. "Need the bathroom, Rossa?" I asked but froze as he looked at me with knowing eyes.

I flew, out of my room and through the temple like a magic bolt. Down past the elders home and through the gap in the wall. I didn't take to the skies, I dropped from the edge of our city and fell into the clouds below. Once they were between me and the city, I pushed my wings to their limit, hitting a velocity I didn't know I had.

"Meliodas!" I screamed out, tears streaming up my face in the wind I created. I could feel his energy, low and controlled. Dust kicked up where I sensed him, a mile or so ahead, the path heading in a straight line for me. Skidding so fast the ground couldn't hold its form as he slowed to a stop below.

"Yo, Elizabeth." He exulted, smiling. I dropped low, diving for him while the air around him changes, like a subtle temperature change and it reminds me of when I first met him in his demon form.

In a tangle of limbs we crashed together, he didn't brace himself for the catch and he slammed back, the impact echoing around us. I straddled him, raining kisses on his head, his cheeks, his chin, and his eyelids. "Uhn" he moans, as I kissed from one side of his face across to the other. He soaked them in as if he'd been dying of thirst and I were fresh water, his face taut with longing. His chest vibrated under my palms there.

I took a deep breath of him and giggled, so elated, feeling so light. He didn't smell like I remembered, kind of sweaty and dirty, but I still cherished it, taking it in.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long," Meliodas apologized, his voice tense and I ease up, realizing he wasn't touching me. His arms are still spread wide in the small indentation he made in the dirt.

"It's okay. I never stopped believing that we would be together again." I cood, tears streaming and my face hurt from how big I smiled, but he couldn't meet my eye. "Meliodas?" I ask, concerned as I leaned back, sitting on his hips and tried to read his face.

"I wasn't there for you like I promised. You cared for me and bandaged me up so well and... I wasn't able to take care of you in return." He whispers. "The Necropolis-"

"No. Meliodas. We never passed through." I tried to reassure but he still won't look at me.

"That's not the point." He deplored. The night rustled around us as the silence grew. "I would have searched for you sooner, but until the Demon King returned to Purgatory..." His power was too great to stay in this world, just like the Supreme Deity. She usually used a vessel, as I had never seen her true self in this realm. I didn't know the Demon King came himself. "I had to stay by his side. The dutiful prince and I let you down." He sounded so resentful.

"Meliodas," I chide firmly, my hands gripping the fabric over his flesh. "I don't care about any of that. The only thing you should be sorry about is not kissing me like you've been missing me!" There is a long pause. He lets out a series of laughing snort, 'nish nish' sounds, his chest bouncing.

"I've missed you desperately, Elizabeth." His hands trail up my thighs to grip my hips and he starts to sit up. With a little sigh, I let go of him to cross my arms over my chest, looking at him intently.

"Oh no. It's too late now." I sassed with a smile, trying to wiggle free half-heartedly. I can't hold it, too happy to be with him again and my hands drop to grip his shirt again.

He took my face in his hands, pulling me down to meet him. His lips storm mine as if inside were all the secrets to life and I'd kept them from him. We opened, in sync and the onslaught of invasion sparked gooseflesh to spread down my spine and across my limbs. I moaned, sinking into him and pouring my own desperation in to clash with his. Our wet tangle of tongues slowed to a torturous pace as he grazed the top of my mouth with his and we breathed each other's air.

When we pulled away, I whimpered from the loss.

"You forgive so easily." He demurred, eyes finally meeting mine. Soft green and swirling with a touch of sadness.

"There's nothing to forgive." I hope my smile puts his worries to rest. "Everything is going to be okay." I pull up my dress and grab the folded papers from my waistband. How lucky for me I had fallen asleep reading rather than gotten in my night clothes. "I just need yours and Ludociel's signature and I can leave with you, without starting up another holy war."

He freezes, seeing the Diplomatic paperwork to become a dignitary.

"I thought," He began, voice thick, at the sight of the papers. "I'd only get a few stolen moment with you but somehow, whatever you put your mind too..." He sounds astonished.

"Now we can steal so many moments," I whisper, hugging him and squishing him against my chest. He laughed, nuzzling against me before reaching up and grabbing the paper from my hand behind him. I see him open it and start to read so I try to pull away but he uses his free hand to press between my wings to keep me where I am.

"Hmm." He hums, nuzzling and reading in the dark. "You'll have to stay in Demon Territory for three months, did you realize that?"

"Yeah." I say, "but if the demon king is-"

"It's not just him I need to watch." Meliodas sighs. "I need to give the Commandments their own duties, most of the troops have disbursed but I could move the closest ones. In the Kingdom, it could be me and Zeldris. Right under the Demon King's nose, in his own castle, I could keep you a while longer." He's talking to himself but pulls away from my breasts to look at me with expectation. Slowly a grin spread, his white teeth gleaming in the moonlight. "It would just be the newest recruits that need shaping up but if I volunteer for that duty the Commandments would be much easier in accepting their distant tasks."

He would be rearranging his entire clan. The Ten Commandments, his team, would be separated. "Meliodas," I whisper. "If it costs you so much to be with me-" I stop, closing my eyes, not wanting to finish saying it.

"If it costs me everything, Elizabeth, you're worth it." He touches under my chin and I meet his eye as he guides me. "It already cost you, the least I can do is match your sacrifices. You're giving up your clan with this, braving living among your enemies to be with me." Meliodas sounds staggered, lost. He pulls away and for a long moment, we stare.

"You're worth it," I added, using his words.

He had the same feelings for me. I tried to absorb everything between us, feeling as much warmth and sentiment as I could bear until I felt maxed out, my eyes welling from too many emotions. To stop the climb even further into our emotions I lean in to place a soft kiss to his lips. A moment of tenderness to seal everything between us, so it didn't get forgotten, so we could keep it. I am lucky that he felt for me what I did for him.

"How long will it take to rearrange everything?" I inquire, afraid of the answer, "I'll wait, as long as I have to..."

"Oh no. We'll be leaving here together. Not seeing you for so long, I will do anything to avoid how hollow I became." Meliodas confessed, moving his hands to my hips and picking me up as he stood. "Oh!" I exclaimed, feeling his hands on my butt as he moves me. "We have at least an hour, what should we get up to, Elizabeth?" Meliodas' eyebrows waggled, his grin turning devious, hands finding their way under my dress.

I grow hot, in the face and at my core as Meliodas walks around me, touching me any place he could. Blowing in my ear, tracing the undercurve of my breasts. "Gah!" I yipped when his hands find my core over my pants. He doesn't rub, just feels me there before letting out a low 'mmmm' himself.

"Your turn." He relents, standing back and gesturing over his body. When I don't move, he grabs my hand and puts my palm on his chest where his shirt is unbuttoned at his neck. I step forward, gripping him at his shoulder and keeping my other hand where he placed it. My forehead touched his and I closed my eyes.

"I missed you so much, I hurt," I whisper and his hands wrap around my center in a genial embrace. He smiled in understanding, rubbing my behind but softly gazing into me. His groping feeling like affection after so long without. We talk softly as we walked as slow as we can back to the clouded city of my people.

When we were under it I flew Meliodas up to the floating city, holding on to his hands and flying backward myself. That way he didn't have to use any of his dark magic. It may wake the more sensitive Goddesses. He told me "I'll fly you around soon, then you'll see how agile I am when my body is put to use." I flushed at his words, unsure if he meant it sexually or truly. He smiled innocently which only confused me more.

The streets were empty this early, the sun about to rise. We walked hand in hand to the Compound. The doors were unlocked and we sat on the edge of the fountain. Our fingers were touching, between us, loose and relaxed as he told me about shaving one of Chandlers eyebrows off in a fight. "He insisted we train, after years of being out of the cube together, I swear he just wanted to make sure I hadn't lost my edge after seeing me... happy."

"Has it grown back?" I giggled, thinking about seeing it for myself.

"If it has by the time we get there, I'll shave it off again, just for you." He vows, winking.

"What's the cube?" I ask, thinking it must be an arena of some kind.

"There's this magician, a little girl I met last year and-"

"AAAHHH!" A scream rents the air, wings flapping out to either side to spread as wide as they could, her mouth a wide gap even after the sound died in her throat. Nerobasta. Her hands came out in front of her as if to physically stop seeing what she was seeing.

"Oh, don't lose your feathers," I tell her, rolling my eyes. "You've met Meliodas before."

She takes a breath, dropping her feet to the floor and dusting her dress as if she just spotted something there. "I was taken unawares." Nerobasta doesn't look in our direction again, walks to her office door and doesn't emerge again.

"I bet everyone's up now." I grouse, rolling my eyes, turning to see Meliodas looking morosely at me. I can almost hear him thinking that we didn't fit. That our people would never accept the other. I repeat his words, softly, diving deep into his orbs, "If it costs me everything, Meliodas..."

Silence spread comfortably between us as he smiled. We both knew this would hurt, yet we were both signing on. This next step, there would be no going back, the demon clan would know about me. A few more moments of our soft gazes and I heard the echoes of heavy Sabatons on the tile. Ludociel is coming.

He sighs, long and heavy as he looks at the two of us. His gaze lingers at our fingertips and I remove them, but only to grab my paperwork. Ludociel's long black hair is pushed back as if so torn he developed a nervous tick of running his fingers there. "Fine." He acquiesced, exasperated "I need to speak with you, alone. Bring your forms."

Ludociel turns back the way he came and I stood to rush after him before turning back to Meliodas. "I'll be right back," I tell him, looking back to Ludociel before again, looking at Meliodas. I wished he could come with me, but Ludociel agreed and I could handle him.

"Go." Meliodas instructed, "I'll yell if I get into trouble." He half-grins at me and I laugh, smiling as I chase down Ludociel. I don't know where he went, the hallway is empty now and I slow, passing an open door before he calls me back.

A study? A desk full of papers and maps. Books were stacked around it and the shelf behind it had so many leather-bound tomes I stared in awe. The lamps were lit, the chairs high backed and cushioned. A rug was under the chairs, a white fluffy thing but I couldn't tell what animal it had come from. The painting opposite Ludociels polished desk was a scene depicting the war, demons in black with twisted faces clashing with white beautiful beings. Oh no.

"Elizabeth, my brother Mael, he-"

"I know," I interrupt, dismissing the rest of his decor to place my copy of the application in front of him. "This is where I am most useful," I tell him. The Goddesses here are torn, some curious about Demons and others not wanting to believe they might be just like us. Not after everything that had happened, everything we've done to one another. It would be too cruel to think they were people, with souls, just like any other clan.

"I agree," Ludociel nodded, looking somber. "Mael will understand, in time." I hold my breath as Ludociel signs the copy, standing beside his desk but bending over it to write. It felt like slow motion as he folds them and hands them back.

"You'll be given a messenger bird, one trained to find me. Report as often as you can and as much information as you can, without putting yourself in danger. When this bird returns to you with a white ribbon on his foot, leave the demons immediately. In secret, if you can, and travel by foot. They look to the skies when we flee." I nod, a shiver going down my spine. All those warning from the council ring in my ears. All the preparations Meliodas had to do. I was in more danger than I thought... wasn't I?

Ludociel continues. "You are smarter and stronger than you put on, it's a good strategy. Use that, use Meliodas' sentiment against him. Protect yourself." He steps toward me, putting a hand on my shoulder and his height is intimidating. "You are the Supreme Deity's daughter- keep it secret, but don't. forget. it." With another slow nod, I go to leave. He follows.

"There is just one more matter to decide, as I'm sure Meliodas will have no problem signing." Ludociel walks with me, motioning me to continue and we head into the hall, going back towards Meliodas. "The treaty states any and all Dignitaries are allowed a guard, one of the Dignitary's choice among those in their own clan. Granted that the one selected agrees."

I frown, watching the floor as we reached the open chamber. I move on instinct toward the fountain.

"Estarossa!" I exclaimed, grinning with my excitement. "He's been registered in our clan! He'd be perfect in security. Oh! He will be so cute in a uniform!"

Ludociel freezes and I hear Meliodas laugh, a full belly laugh and it echoes in the open dome above the chamber. "Who?" Ludociel questions as another set of Sabatons sound in the distance. "I don't know who Estarossa is." The lead Archangel admits just as his brother Mael enters, looking us all over. His gaze falls on the forms in my hand before glaring at his brother in... betrayal?

I step toward Meliodas, nervous. He must have sensed the atmosphere change too, as he isn't relaxed by the fountain when I look over, but at my side.

"It's her dog," Mael answers, barely concealed anger in his tone. I was expecting the same anger from Ludociel but his long nose flares as he holds back his laugh, eyes twinkling when he smiles at me.

"Always full of surprises." Ludociel barely keeps a straight face as he's speaking. "Well, let's go. As a representative, I must witness his acceptance." Suddenly he yelled, "Nerobasta, ready a messenger bird and meet us by the gates!" His voice was so loud and unexpected even I jumped so I wasn't surprised to hear Nerobasta's surprised 'yip' from inside her office.

Ludociel motioned us on and Meliodas took my hand, walking between me and the two archangels. We pass Mael, he looked like he'd rather eat nails than follow but Ludociel took his shoulder with a clap, followed by a squeeze as if in comfort.

I would have bet Meliodas my panties that Mael wouldn't come along... but I was wrong. After a breath, Mael shook himself and caught up with his brother. The two fell back a few paces, speaking to one another in a low tone. Meliodas guided me toward the temple and I refocused, grinning over at Meliodas and squeezing his hand. His grin back said it all. Our adventure is just beginning.


	19. A Detour

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm grateful to her.

Chapter Nineteen: A Detour

Lady Graelle was a flutter of emotions. "I'm so glad to see you two together again," she'd told Meliodas and I as she cried over the news. Mael had scoffed while Ludociel had to peel her from me, saying they were on a schedule today and she waved me on, wiping at her face. Meliodas had jumped up to the hallway that leads to my room while this had gone on and the three of us with wings flew up after him.

"He knows where your room is?" Ludociel asked, surprise in his voice. I didn't respond, just grow unbearably hot as Meliodas reached my room in front of the three of us and dipped in with a devious grin. I hear Estarossa's excited hops and Meliodas said a 'Hi, boy- I missed you too.'

"I'm more concerned that you haven't explained to Meliodas what declaration hand clasping means," Mael mutters, cross and at his limit of tolerance.

"Oh, she's told me." Meliodas chimed in a singing tone. I walked into my room and with two more bodies added to the tiny space the room felt as if it were closing in. He took my hand when I reach the center of my room and he gave the back of it a kiss. "I intend to couple you, repeatedly and vigorously."

"Eeep!" I squeaked, his eyes danced with delight. He let go as he spotted my empty pack, folded beside my dresser. He pulled it free and shook it out. Why did he have to do that in front of them? Estarossa circled me, stopped at the back of my ankles and rumbled at the two Archangels. Meliodas looked humored at the puppy, while Mael and Ludociel stand awkwardly, just inside my room.

"Now, to start packing. You'll obviously need your little panties." He stepped over, pulled the drawer open and looked over the pairs with low lids. Meliodas looked back at me, then assessed my body. "Blue today, let me see if I'm right." He pushed off the dresser, which bounced against the wall, Meliodas slid the two feet distance between us, on his knees. His face was level with my core as he grabbed the hem of my dress and I panicked in my reach to keep my dress down.

There was no need, as his thumb and finger pinched the fabric at the edge of my dress were frozen in place, a foreign hand gripping his wrists. I followed the arm up to Mael's large form in his silver gleaming armor, to his tense face. My hands originally headed for the hem of my dress changed course mid-way, burrowed in Meliodas' hair. He's in more danger here than I realized as well... wasn't he?

My room grew still, statues of the previous people they used to be, and the tension built to a stifling level. As if the hostility were smoke, my eyes burned and my lungs struggled to breathe evenly. I had moved without triggering these two fighting but when I met eyes with Ludociel, frozen with his arm extended toward Mael at my doorway his eyes glared into me with a warning.

Delicately I reached for Mael's grip on Meliodas' wrist, but before I could attempt anything to detach the two, Ludociel ripped Mael back- his forearm jammed into the breastplate at his brother's chest pinning him against the wall beside the door. Meliodas didn't move an inch, solid in spite of the force Ludociel used.

"Reign it in, Elizabeth is pure and can handle this. Think long term." Ludociel spoke, low and calm. I squeaked as Meliodas finally moved, hands moving to roam my legs.

"Pure..." Meliodas hushes, in reverence, before he stood and looked to Estarossa. "Do you, Estarossa, accept the task of guarding Elizabeth while she goes about her duties in the Anti-war effort." Meliodas paused "bark if you agree."

Estarossa lets out a little 'Rarf' and sits actually looking a little regal. Meliodas looked to his hips, frowns and with a blink, he suddenly had a sword. He taps one side of the dogs head, then the other "I now dub thee, Estarossa knight of Scraps Disposal, tasked with protecting Lady Elizabeth."

I laughed and covered my mouth as Ludociel looked utterly livid as Meliodas calmly returned the blade to him. "I'm responsible for Elizabeth's safety now. You're dismissed." I knew Mael and Ludociel wouldn't take kindly to being ordered around and I bite my lip to stop myself from speaking. It didn't work.

"Thank you, for trusting me, and I'll be okay." I tell the two Archangels trying to balm over the insult and I go to the door, holding it even though it was already open. A clear sign they could go and I gave them an out that softened Meliodas' rough orders. "I'll see you at the gate in a few minutes. I just need to pack my things, I don't have much." With the coaxing, they left, but my door stayed open.

We moved around each other. Touching arms and hands as we tucked my clothes in my sack.

"You really don't have much," Meliodas says, picking up the Demon Coin off my pillow. I flush, smiling a little with a shrug. He tucks it in my bag and I'm glad I patched the hole. With no effort at all, he carries the bag over his shoulder and takes my hand. I don't look back.

Lady Graelle walks with us to the gate, catching up with us at the entrance of the Temple. She's brought a sack of food, which Meliodas adds to his grip already holding the straps of my bag at his shoulder. She blesses me, kissing my forehead, and I cry. "I'll miss you." I tell her "You've been more a mother to me-" But her sobs burst forth, holding my head to hers and nodding.

"You always have a home with me." Lady Graelle promises. Meliodas waits, watching the two of us cry. "With your mindset, I know you can prevent the war from sparking again. My soft, compassionate, Elizabeth."

Estarossa jumps up for a cuddle from Lady Graelle. She scratches his ear, telling him "you always have a home with me too." When she addresses Meliodas, her crinkled face twists to a smile. "Take care of our girl." With a sniff, Lady Graelle releases me and steps back, letting me go.

Meliodas nods firmly once, rubbing my back as we walk out, tears still falling.

"You're leaving your entire clan." Meliodas whispers while we take a slow path down the streets. "You don't have to do this."

"I know," I tell him, taking a deep breath to steady myself. "But I want too."

Mael and Ludociel don't say a word as I take the angry looking sharp-beaked bird in a rectangle cage from Nerobasta. I wave, telling them goodbye and they all repeat the parting. Mael refuses to meet my eye, Ludociel was staring into me, as if trying to tell me with his mind what to do. He hands me a pouch, telling me "your stipend, don't ask for more, that's plenty" and when I look inside there are gems. Nerobasta was smiling and waving me away like I couldn't leave fast enough.

With Estarossa wrapped in my arms and the sack of Gems shoved in my pack at Meliodas back, I take to the sky. Meliodas just jumps off the edge of the city. "Goodbye," I whispered, nuzzling into the white fur against my cheek. When I passed through the clouds and Meliodas was there between the trees all my worries and sorrow vanished. If he was with me, if he was okay, then everything is too.

With Estarossa and an angry looking hook-beaked bird in tow, we walk. "I stashed my things a few miles that way," Meliodas points, looking at me with concern. His tension melted though as I beamed at him, excited to start our adventure. In a matter of moments, it was like we had never been apart.

When we made it to his pack, a horse was there, tied to a tree. Meliodas gave him water, introducing us. "This is Langelier." She was a warm brown mare, dark eyes weary. Obviously not a warhorse, maybe one he had bought? Neither of us rode her, instead he packed her up with all our bags, even stringing up the birdcage to bob atop the beast.

"I have something I want to show you." Meliodas confesses softly, "We'll have to go out of our way a bit, but it should only add a day or two to our travels."

With an easy pace, we took our time. We stopped often, slept under the same blanket with Meliodas letting his demon aura leak out to keep the bugs away. I asked if he needed to be back at his kingdom but he grinned telling me "I'm the demon prince, without my father here, I do as I please." He shrugs before adding "Zeldris will be pissed though." Meliodas' grin seemed to get wider at the thought.

That afternoon, we came across a river. We followed it, the sound of trickling water calming and we spoke a while about our childhoods of all things. I grew up in Charity's home from a young age, having come over from the celestial realm.

"It was warm. I don't really remember much of it." I tell him, "The Supreme Deity comes through, but she uses vessels. If she stays too long, the goddess hosting her burns up inside. No one has died since I've been here but she doesn't bother with us much, preferring to speak through the mirror."

"A mirror?" Meliodas asks.

"Yeah, it's inside 'the light of grace' the tower of the stigma base. It used to be in the temple but they moved it to their stronghold." I pause, looking up at the trees as they thin. Was the water sound getting louder? I looked over at the river. "It can be opened, but I don't know how." I continue, dismissing my errant thought.

"We have gates to purgatory, but usually when The Demon King wants a word he'll simply reach through and pull you into his realm." I falter in my steps, tripping over nothing but Meliodas steadies me. He made sure to grip my breast as he rights me. We'd long since established I wasn't used to being on my feet- flying was my preference but I wanted to be where Meliodas was. "A minute here is a year there. Father does like to make his point, violently, wait for you to heal- make them again."

"Oh."

I hug him, wrapping him against me and breathing in his hair since he's already so close, having caught me. "How many times?" I ask, his hands finding my waist. "Not that often, don't worry." He whispers, pulling away but taking my hand to lead me through the thicket. I smell the change, the humid air hitting me as I see what we've traveled to.

The ocean.

The vast, endless waters. Sunshine glinting off the waves. It took my breath away and I watched a bird swoop down breaking the surface and taking to the skies again. We were on a clifftop, a little grass over the rock and I stepped forward still gripping Meliodas' hand. The waves crashed against the cliff under me, the mist spraying up around us and I grinned, feeling it on my face.

"Oh!" I gushed, turning to Meliodas who was already looking at me. "Can we stay for the sunset?" I ask, using both my hands to hold his. He nods with his face etched in soft lines and an easy smile. Instead of turning back to the view, I step forward and kiss him, in thanks. For taking me with him, for wanting me to be with him, for showing me the ocean, that he remembered what I had told him at Megadozer to begin with and... because I wanted to.

With us having been apart for a while, all of our touches hadn't gone farther than gentle. This kiss though, it started soft and... amplified. Mouth parted, fingers gripping, tongues exploring and the groans all crescendoed together. Soon, he's guiding me down to lay me in the grass with our kiss never breaking.

My core pulses, growing wet and I moan when his knee slides between my legs. His lips twist into a smile against mine and I respond, giggling against his kiss. He pulls back to watch and I grow hot under his scrutiny.

"I'm going to take care of you, Elizabeth." He says. I relax, happy to be with him. Until in a blink all the buttons down the front of my dress were opened and with a fist on either side of the fabric, he pulls it open revealing my chest in one pull.

"Gah!" I scream, my arms clutching at myself but he laughed, ducking his head under my forearm. I ended up squishing his face against my bare chest, rather than covering myself.

"Mm, Elizabeth if you needed some attention, you just had to ask." He jokes, licking at my nipple and I didn't fight it, slipping my fingers into his locks. I wasn't as quick as him, nor as skilled but as he teased and worshiped at my breasts, I slowly unbuttoned his shirt. He unstrapped his sword, tossing it to the side, which I wouldn't have been able to do with the weight of the thing. The hilt landed by my face and with a suck to my neck I tilted my head in that direction.

He had two blue ribbons looped around the hilt. I recognized them from my letters. I flush for another reason entirely.

With a new thrill, I made my way to his pants to free him. With eager fingers, he found his way into my panties. Our pace was slow, not like the first time but the same dynamics. Leisurely we pleasured one another. I sucked on his ear, breathing heavy as I told him "you're so hard."

He told me he was close and I flushed, watching as he spilled across my belly, grunting with tension before sagging, his forehead pressed to mine. Meliodas tsks, removing his hand from inside my pants. I flounder, not brave enough to tell him I still needed him there. "Look at the mess you made, Elizabeth. I'll have to punish you."

He moved his leg from between mine and I frown, confused as to why we were stopping. I try to sit up but before I get more than an inch off the grass his fists grip my pants at my hips and he yanks them off in one clean swoop. My pants fly over his shoulder. "Look at you." He coos, eyes burning with green flames. "Glistening with my cum, and dripping your sweetness."

Meliodas moves between my legs, pants still undone and growing hard once more. It was intimidating to look at and I flushed, turning away. Instinctively I resisted my legs spreading, not wanting to expose my vulnerable underbelly and Meliodas stops. "I just want to look." He reassures, "I'll only touch you how I have before. No farther."

Lifting my head I met his eyes and with a little fear I let my legs fall wide, where he had been guiding them. Without breaking eye contact his fingers found my core. I couldn't resist, my pulse quickening and I gasp out falling back into the grass with my hands coming to my forehead. He swirled and little ahs and breaths escaped me. When he lowered his face, getting closer to my slit I wiggled, trying to get used to him looking... right. there.

"You're bare." He murmurs. "Pure." his voice sounds with reverence again and I grow unbearably hot, my chest burning with my face. "It's intoxicating." He murmurs taking a deep breath and then blowing, slowly across my sensitive flesh and I gasp, throbbing from the sensation. When his finger twirls at my most sensitive spot I shake with tingles. The waves were building inside me, mirroring the ocean below.

"You're perfectly formed." Meliodas says, "your body is tailor-made for me, Elizabeth." He admits. The intensity rises with his second deep breath over my slit and his soft breath sends me tumbling over the edge of pleasure and I pinch my eyes closed. My orgasm rips through me and I scream, a warbled version of Meliodas' name and it echoes off the cliffs below.

"Let me feel you a little longer," Meliodas pleads and my hands find my cheeks as I realize I lost my firm grip on my sensibilities. My slit was too sensitive, when he repeats his movements I shutter, crying out desperately. "Ooohh, what's this..." He mutters. Another swirl of pressure at my nub and it feels like I'm still on the edge but so far away. Too many feelings course through me and my core muscles clench at nothing. Wanting something...

"Mel-Melio-" I start but I can't focus and he breathes me in as if he really can't get enough of it. Is this normal? I didn't have any sexual reference to gauge, but I trusted Meliodas. "P-please," I beg, my legs pressing against his biceps between my knees. "I can't take it," I mutter, I'm writhing when he lets his breath tickle at my core.

"I want another from you." Meliodas demands, "I want you to scream my name so loud it echoes here forever." It's too much. I already came so I felt spent, like all the nerves that the pleasure awoke were fried and needed a recharge but under his ministrations, they were reawakened. It almost hurt, feeling this way. I tried to resist, afraid to follow my body down this road again but when the pulse surged up from my core, the white-hot pleasure became inevitable.

"Oh!" I arched, my back straining from the amplified tingles. "I... I feel..." I don't know what I'm saying, not sure what I need, or why this second climb to an orgasm felt so heightened. Perhaps the road was well worn now, so the feelings knew where to go but expanding from where we left off?

"Around you, I'm always too full, brimming with-" Meliodas says, his face nuzzling my thigh and I groan. His soft skin against mine, so close to my core and I tumble not registering his words as I scream his name so loud my voice dies in a strangled sob at the end, cutting his words off. The orgasm like fire burning my nerve endings bare with the gluttony.

Light exploded out of me, rays of it shining in each direction and the flowers around me bloom, the thicket we climbed through sprouting new growth and the edge of the cliff was covered in dangling vines, covered in blossoms. "Oh."

I sit up, Meliodas looking around us in awe.

"Why do I... uh..." I don't have any kind of words for this.

"At least I know you can never fake it with me." Meliodas grins, seemingly thrilled. Fake it? I sit up, the pool of Meliodas liquid drips down my front and he pulls his shirt off, wiping it away.

"So... Its okay that... I..."

"Light up my life. Yes, absolutely. Anytime. All the time." He jokes. I guess trying to make me feel less self-conscious? A thought jolted me straight, face to face with Meliodas on his knees still between mine. My eyes widen and his swirling with joy deepen as his brows drop in concern from my reaction.

"Does it hurt you?" I demand, touching him on his chest and arm, checking him over for Light burns. I'd seen them so often on the battlefield. Goddess magic against a demon usually ended in-

"Not at all." Meliodas quips, "You naturally... heal." He continues. "Purifying the water in Megadozer. Blooming the flowers the first time and then hyper exploding the growth this second time." His eyes danced with mischief and I grin, slowly it turns into a giggle as I lean forward, tucking my face into his neck. His arms wrap around me. "It feels..." he admits softly "like a warm bath on the inside... like you are reaching inside me and everything is right in the world for just a moment."

"Oh..." I shiver, not from the cold and regretfully he lets me go to button up my open dress. "You should wear this one as often as possible." He tells me, meaning my dress. I laugh, looking at his bunched up shirt at his side. He'd used it as a rag for his spill.

"I'm sorry about your shirt." I tell him, "I'll wash it in the river before we-"

He shushes me with a firm kiss on my moving lips "Don't ever be sorry about that." He shakes his head from side to side "Not ever." I flush, giving him a little kiss back and turning back to the view. Meliodas collects my pants and underwear, handing them over but sniffing the panties.

"Is that normal?" I puzzled, standing to put them on. "Sniffing and... the stuff you do." His eyes are dancing, thrilled.

"Oh, Elizabeth... No." He admits elongating the o with a long exhale, tucking my hair behind my ear. "Does it bother you?"

"No," I whisper, feeling my face to check if I was still flush. I don't think I've stopped since my second orgasm. "Its, intense sometimes, but you've shown me what my body can do and it's... nice."

"Nice." He flatlines, shoulders sagging as his lips thin. "Nice, she says."

"I mean, I just..." I cover my face with my other hand too, sitting in the tall flowers to shrink myself into non-existence. "I'm not good at this," I mutter, wishing I had said great or amazing or even educational. Why did I have to hurt his feelings!?

He sits beside me, shoulder to shoulder and watches the view with me. "I'm teasing, Elizabeth. Being with you is... nice too." But when he says nice with that tone it sounds like something more. I turn to look at him, trying to find some clue as to what he meant but he stares at the ocean, the mist spraying around us. He's very handsome. I follow the curve of his nose, the smooth edge to his jaw.

Being shirtless only amplified my appreciation of him. He obviously worked his body hard. The war must have toned him. His ripped chest and fit, muscled arms were nice to look at. Nice. Oh geez. With a smile, that Meliodas matches without looking, I turn to watch the water too. I felt calm. Satisfied and not just because of our sexual escapades.

Estarossa noses his way through the thicket as if knowing it was safe to join us. He's a smart pup. He waddled through the flowers, we both watched as he went to Meliodas' other side and rested his head on his thigh. Hm. Good idea. I spread out, stretching my legs and leaning my head on Meliodas' shoulder.

I soaked in the peace, trying to commit every detail to memory to revisit this later.


	20. Demons

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Twenty: Demons

As we approached the demon kingdom, Meliodas changed. He was on alert, walking closer to me and looking towards any noise in the distance. His eyes were black, a thin jagged line down his cheek connected to his demon mark and his behavior set off my anxiety.

"Is everything okay?" I asked him, whispering as if we were hiding.

His eyes change, bleeding green until they shone. "Don't worry. I can handle anything that comes our way, I just want to sneak you in without much attention." I frowned, focusing back on the path. Would I be a secret? I wanted to learn about demons, to get out among them, not sneak around and hide. Estarossa walked beside me and I scratched at his head, contemplating.

The Demon clan had a wall around it. Not to fortify but to indicate the line. I smiled to myself, thinking of when I crossed our border for the first time and tried to find where it was marked. Meliodas walked along the stacked logs and the sacks of sand. A large red breathing beast was laying on its back to our right, among the tree line. I stepped closer to Meliodas, clasping my hands to my chest.

"That is a Red Demon. They are only activated when we are threatened. It's like a golem, since it was created, but more like a guard dog that sleeps most of the time. Don't get too close." He didn't have to tell me twice. I suppose we had to sneak in because of all the higher level demons Meliodas had spoken about a few days ago when I first showed him my dignitary paperwork. I dismissed my earlier concern.

Meliodas planned to rearrange his entire clan to make this city safe for me. If that meant laying low so he could do what he had to, then I would make it easier on him. A howl sounded in the distance, somewhere in the city and I gripped the back of Meliodas' shoulders, stepping right to him from behind. He smiled reassuringly before walking on. I followed, still holding on to him.

The buildings that I could see through the gaps in the border wall were far apart. An acre, sometimes more, between them. Compared to the floating city I lived in, the goddesses are cramped. I wonder if that ever made Meliodas uncomfortable, being closed in. I'll have to ask when I wasn't nervously sneaking into a demon city.

It began looking more like a series of barren farms built next to one another. The stacks of logs were broken up ahead, splintered wood was scattered out as if something exploded out from the inside. Meliodas had the horse reins and we all fit through, going into the city together. It was early morning. We could have entered the city last night but Meliodas said demons were most active at night, as their power increased in the darkness, like vampires.

The buildings ranged from hut sized to estates of various types. Some had the cabin logs, some stone and some planked but almost all of them had the same slat stone roofs. It was cool to see the rocks so flat and I peeked around as best I could. A few people were about, some with strange limbs made of darkness, others scurrying away from us as if we were a threat.

"Where is everyone?" I ask.

"Sleeping off their drink probably." He quips, "I planned to come in from here. If I can just avoid the Commandments... I want more time, that's all." There is a pause as he pulls along our horse and he takes my hand, plucking it from his shoulder to guide me to walk beside him. I smile, thinking of him declaring us to whoever could see us through his town. When I look over, he's smiling too, eyes dark green rather than jet black. "I swear, Elizabeth. I won't hide us, even with the consequences I'll have to face. I'll bear them as you have."

I flush, thinking he must see something in me that I don't. Still, I smile, happy just to be in his world. I'd heard about it but to see it was different. I don't think any goddess I knew had ever stepped foot here and lived to tell anyone. "I trust you, Meliodas. It's okay." His eyes flash liquid green before slowly bleeding to dark green again, the darkness in them almost looking like tendrils with how they moved.

The castle was in sight, a mass of stone towers while the bulk of it spanned in a large L shape with grey and black cutaways adorning the top. It was huge, maybe not as big as the whole of Megadozer but for one building and for just two princes to live in, I was blown away. The nearer we got, the closer together the people lived. Rather than Ten plus acres between homes, there was maybe an acre, sometimes half of one.

"This is the market district," Meliodas explained. "We'll come through one day, you can go shopping."

"I've never shopped before," I hushed. The goddesses didn't have much by way of currency. We shared everything with one another, helped one another. It would be exciting to experience a different kind of exchange. "I won't use my coin though. I need that one." I tell him. "Will they take the gems?" I inquire but he's stopped moving, guiding me to stand behind him and I quiet immediately.

A moment later, he exhales, we're off again and I breath easier too. Soon, we're before the castle grounds. The gates creaked open but Meliodas relaxed a hundredfold once inside them. Estarossa, that dumb bird and our horse must have all sensed the danger as they had been quiet in our journey. I spun in place, looking at the beast statues holding weapons, the gates of iron wrought with jagged points on the top. The stone blocks of the barrier wall that looked as if they'd been in a fire in some places from the scorch marks.

Meliodas waited for me, no longer in any rush as I followed the tower up to the top with my eyes. I wanted to go up there, to see the view of the city from up high. When I had my fill, looking at the pointed windows and spotting a few balconies, Meliodas lead me to a door. The handles were screaming faces, the frame a black wavy snake shape.

He hooked Langelier to a post beside the door, taking our things. I carried the birdcage as the thing squawked like crazy when Meliodas got too near. Inside, the halls were large, a giant could walk through but would have to watch for the dangling candelabras. The walls were a deep red, the carpet black and every so often an empty suit of armor stood. We took a few turns, passing a large dome room that I peeked around but couldn't see much of.

We reached a pair of double doors, long handles at the center that looked like serpents stretched tautly. Meliodas dropped his bag and used that hand to pull the heavy door open. "This is the safest place to be, while here Elizabeth." He told me, not telling me to stay put but seeming to find a need to stress this. I nod, following him in after he picks up his bag again.

It was a full wing. He showed me the rooms, a study, a bathroom that had its own warming tub and a bedroom with a large demon crest over the oversized bed hung on the wall. The main room had been my favorite with the chairs and the fireplace but now that I have been in this bedroom, I liked this one more.

"You'll be sleeping here," Meliodas points, dropping our bags off in front of a door to our right, probably a closet since our bags were mostly clothing. "After sleeping on the ground the last few nights, a bed sounds divine." I look at the mattress and then around at the decor. A stray thought wiggles in and I dismiss it but still feel a little sting. How many women have been in this bed with him?

"Where will I sleep if I'm mad at you?" I ask and Meliodas looks shocked before turning to look at me with humor in his eyes.

"Here, obviously." He's grinning.

"Okay, then where will you sleep?" I joke and his laugh fills the room. I smile, loving the sound and feeling much better for it. "And, what if you can't keep your hands to yourself." I chide, crossing my arms as I make my way over to my bag. I'd love a bath.

"Oh, sweet Elizabeth." He murmurs softly "You shouldn't worry about if, there is no doubt that my hands belong on you." I grow hot, thinking this was different than the times we've spent the night together. Sneaking at Megadozer, with so many others close, we hadn't done anything. Even him coming to my room when I had that fever, he hadn't stayed the night but here we were planning on being a couple.

We'd have complete privacy.

Maybe because of the adrenaline when we stealth in, or maybe because of Meliodas' long look over me, I'm nervous. I can't help but fiddle with my dress hem. Estarossa bound around the place, jumping on the bed and running in a circle around a chair to my right. I watched him, realizing the situation I put myself in.

My goal had been 'be with Meliodas again' but I was now in our very recent enemies territory with no friends outside of Meliodas and Estarossa. I would be relying on him for everything and I flushed, realizing he had his own obligations and couldn't exactly hand hold me the entire three months I'd be here. "What... can I do here?" I puzzle, my voice sounded squeaker than normal and I flush.

"Don't worry," Meliodas spoke, drawing me out of my thoughts. "I'll get things settled, you may need to stay in the castle for the time being. Until I can show you around. They'll know then, that you are under my protection." He is firm, eyes growing dark again. I frowned.

He must have picked up that I was out of sorts as his touches were simply soft affection. He showed me how to prepare a bath, a well pump there to use and he started a fire below it. When it was ready he gave me my space, telling me he had to go for just a moment but would be back by the time I was finished.

Naked and wet, and Meliodas passed up the opportunity to be a pervert. Maybe he was nervous too, or knew I needed a moment to adjust?

The hot water helped and I shook my feelings off. Clean and calm. Even if I just stayed here for the next three months, it wasn't that long. Meliodas is important, but ending the war for good was my top priority. He knew that. As if to reminding me how far away that goal was, the ugly bird squawked in the next room. Would Ludociel request my return if I didn't give him enough information?

I had to tell Meliodas what Ludociel expected of me. Together we can hash out a plan to keep him satisfied without delving too deep into anything. I dressed, now nervous about telling Meliodas I had to spy and report back while with him. It tainted our time together and I felt a bit morose, thinking our clans were far off from declaring peace or dismantling the armies.

He had two plates of food when I got out, we ate on the floor in front of the fire. It was all meat. Chunks of it, with no vegetables or grains or rice. I didn't ask, thinking maybe this is what Demons ate. No wonder he had loved fruit so much! And still ate the food I made regardless how awful it tasted.

After we ate we took a tour of the castle. Where Zeldris' wing is and where Chandler and Cusack stayed. Even the staff's quarters in case I needed anything. He introduced me to a "Ms. Polly" who was a stout and pregnant woman with a pretty nose. "She'll take care of anything you need, she runs this place," Meliodas told me and Polly flushed. Her darkness, which covered her in a flowing dress from neck to ankle, flickered off the edges.

The place was cold. Not temperature wise but in the way our 'museum to the ancients' back home felt. Things were placed here for a purpose, sconces polished but unused, weapons encased in glass. Back at the temple, the hall of purity flowers and most of the prayer chambers were like this, but in the sisters-in-waiting hall there were warm memories. I didn't feel like there were any here. The only things that drew my eyes were the holes blasted in the walls and ceilings every so often. Meliodas pointed to one round indentation in the stones across from the large dining room.

"Zeldris made that, we fought over the last piece of cherry tart." I wasn't sure if his brother made it with his body or if he meant Zeldris had thrown him into it. Hm. So they did have other things besides meat. We held hands as he brought me to the courtyard, telling me about his memories here.

"Chandler raised me while in this realm, we did most of our training here. Until the cube, obviously." Meliodas explained and I frowned. This realm? And there's a reference to that cube again. He said it as if I should know, but he pulled me along, excited as we entered a tower. His darkness spread to wings and we flew up the stairway, him turning to watch me behind him until we reached the top. The wind is harsh, whipping around my hair and I stepped down to fold my wings so not to lose any feathers.

I walked to the edge, clutching Meliodas' hand with both of mine in awe as I looked out. Each house, on their acres were like a patch of earth, a quilt of life. Open and free, surrounded by forests in the far, far distance. Giant grey, red and a white demon sat, laid and stood frozen at the edges of their city, spaced out. Truly like guard dogs.

"That's the market district I told you about." Meliodas points out, and I turn away from the barren farms to the closer together buildings. With it being evening, people were milling about, looking like dots from up here. Pop up shops and buildings were glowing from the inside, like an invitation to come in. "Over this way, that's the training grounds." We walked a half circle around the top of the tower and I took it in.

There, covering a few miles was just dirt, buildings in the center of it. The exposed ground had etched circles around the buildings every so often, like little arenas had been stamped out with a round cookie cutter. Beside it, from there to the far off borders were burnt fields of black ash marring the beauty of this place. I can see why he showed me the other side first. "What happened?" I whispered, looking back to Meliodas, his eyes black as coal as he turned from the scene to look at me.

"War." He answers, simply. Oh, the goddesses have done this. "Come on." We left the tower, me in a daze until we passing the courtyard. He pulled me into a run as we went under the breezeway that connected the tower to the castle. In the grass, there was a half hoop made of rusted metal in the center of a stone-lined hoop-ball field or well, Booru. "Wanna play?" He asked and I grinned, "absolutely". He left to find a ball and I walked around, wondering when I'd get the nerve to tell him about Ludociel and that dumb bird's purpose.

Maybe before bed.

Later, after I lost horribly as hoop-ball, Meliodas gave me space again to change. He kept his hands to himself but still touched my face and pulled me against him when I had tried to stay on my side of the big bed. The sheets were smooth and it took no effort for him to slip me over to him. Cuddled up like this, it reminded me of Megadozer.

I giggled, turning into the nook of his neck.

"What?" He breathed, arm coming around to play at my hip and down my back. We were on our sides, chest to chest and although my feet dangled past his, we fit together.

"It's such a big bed but we're acting like we're on a one person bedroll." I reply, exhaling on his neck from this angle. He chuckles.

"I like you beside me." He confesses and I like it too. I frown, pulling away and sitting up. With overwhelming shame I can't bring myself to look at him as I fold my hands into the other.

"Meliodas," I hush, scared this would change something between us. "Ludociel wants me to report to him," I whisper, afraid if I say it too loud, he'll be more hurt somehow. Meliodas sits slowly, his hand comes to rest on mine, intertwined together so tight my knuckles were white.

"I figured." He surmised, voice soft. "Is there repercussions if you don't comply?"

"A white ribbon on that stupid bird means I have to leave, immediately and stealthily. So, it's implied that I'll have to be useful to him here or I won't be permitted to stay." I frown, thinking Ludociel had a lot of overinflated clout to make me do this. He is one of the representatives on the treaty!

"Then, be useful," Meliodas says, touching my chin to force me to look at him. "I trust you. Anything you've put your mind too has succeeded." My face feels like it's on fire and I feel my eyes well with tears. He opens his arms, knowing what was about to happen and I fall into them, crying against his chest in relief.

That night, he kissed me awake to tell me he had to go but would be back that afternoon. It was hard to fall asleep after he'd left, knowing I was alone in this strange place. Through the window I watched the night twinkle and I gave up altogether when I heard a large crash somewhere to the east of us, toward the patchwork of houses. Meliodas did tell me Demons were most active at night. I dressed, planning on finding a book to read.

When I made my way to the sitting room, a girl was here, firewood in her arms and she froze on her way to the bathroom to stare at me with wide eyes. She looked to be about my age but had no curves, so I pegged her as younger. Her hair was stringy brown, cut to be choppy over the left side of her face. I could only see one of her eyes and her mouth. Her darkness covered her breasts and flared at her hips to look like a cute dress, but it covered her left arm, left leg and spread up her neck on that same side of her cheek.

"Hi!" I chirp, waving my fingers at her. "I'm Elizabeth," I tell her and her wide, dark eye look at my wings, to the door I just came out of and back again. "Do you need help?" I ask, stepping to the girl and taking the wood from her. She was so shocked I could have knocked her over with a finger poke. "You must work here," I reasoned as I walk into the bathroom, stacking the wood where Meliodas had taken it from to heat my bath yesterday. She snapped back to reality.

"Oh, please miss. That's my job, if Ms. Polly knew." She fusses, brushing the splinters from the sleeves of my dress. I laughed as she froze, looking mortified as she backed away.

"Don't worry," I tell her. "I won't say a word." The girl smiles, soft and her face finally relaxes.

"You're a goddess." She observed, shaking her head. "I mean, I heard that Lord- uh, Master he took a woman but I thought you'd be in the mistress wing and not that you would be... well..." Her face grows flushed, her eyes shifting away and she physically put a hand over her lips as if that would stop her from talking.

"I am a goddess. You're a demon." I tell her, smiling at her. "Meliodas brought me here. I'm the Ambassador from the Goddess Clan and I hope together we can find a more stable ground between our clans." The girl's mouth pops open, jaw hanging.

"Me? What can I do?" She panicked.

"Oh. I meant like... me and your clan, so just talking to me is good." I amend, raising my hands as if in surrender and she lets out a long breath, nodding.

"Yeah, okay." She relents, "Well I have more chores so I need too..." She stands, going to leave and I frown.

"Can I help?" I'm too eager, "I don't have anything to do and I don't want to wait around." I wasn't the type, never have been. "If I can do something, let me."

"Lady Elizabeth, it wouldn't be proper, Master has taken you as his lady so you-"

"Just Elizabeth and I'm my own person," I correct her. Slowly, she smiles.

"I'm Mina and I'll take that as an order. Come on." She relents, her darkness trickling out from her left side. I follow her, helping her clean the spotless sconces and we talk. Mostly she just asks questions about being a goddess and I ask after her own family.

She didn't have anyone, all lost to the war, so she'd been sent to live here with Ms. Polly. Their mothers had been cousins, so she was the only relative left to her. I explained that I only had Lady Graelle, that she wasn't my mother but had become so. We even talked about how I had the same duties she had now, at the temple back home. She'd been amazed that Goddesses didn't use their slaves for duties like that. She'd given me another shocked look when I told her we didn't have slaves at all. "But your breath!" She'd reasoned and I flushed.

"They don't use it for that," I confessed and she asked, wearily "Have you ever used it before?"

"No!" I proclaim, hot and I move my shoulders back. Ludociel had fought against me before the council and had won, so it was still legal to use our breath weapon. I lost that fight, but the council had told me I could revisit the law after the war was over. I changed the subject, telling her that we didn't even have coins for trading that we just shared among ourselves. When she'd finished her duties, with so much time to spare from my help, she looked at me with hope.

"Is it true goddesses can heal?" Mina shyly asks. Her eyes a honey brown now that she's gotten used to me. "I've only ever seen... well..." I filled in the blanks, the goddesses light canceled out the demon darkness. It could burn, breath of bless could influence minds, arcs exploded and our blades... We were the monsters to them. She's only seen how we destroy.

"Yeah, I can," I tell her, smiling sadly. "It's the only thing I'm good at." I watch as slowly, the darkness seems to steam off her arms, her leg and her neck on her left side and scarred, burned skin is revealed. Her hand rippled with rough cracks as it pulls her hair from her face and her cheek was the same. I stepped toward her, eyes welling.

"Did the goddesses...?" I needed to be sure and she nods, telling me about the village she grew up in. Grain farms had been burned with the white light of grace, along with the farmers. To starve out the demons, that they didn't have any military might. Civilian casualties to the cruelty of war. "Let me try. I'll have to touch where the burns are."

With a little discussion, we go to her room. It's in the wing where Ms. Polly and the others that work in the house live and it reminds me of my room at the temple, only about four times the size. Demons definitely liked their space. She let her darkness shimmer away, leaving it where her skin wasn't marred and my chest constricted for her. Her left breast, her chest, her hip and the entire left half of her body was covered in the lines and bubbles of long ago burned flesh.

With a little tentative touch, I started at her foot, moving around her body. The glow from my hands made her flinch from me, looking betrayed and angry down at me. My light must remind her of the goddess light that harmed her. I cried then, tears streaming down my face as she spotted the lighter, pink skin at her toes that hadn't been there before and her mouth gapes.

"Oh," Mina exhales, the unruined half of her face pinkening. "Okay." She consented softly, relaxing again, I went back to the task, both of my hands glowing over her skin. Mina wiggled and shook as I moved higher and higher up her side.

"I'm so sorry, Mina," I tell her, trying to explain how I never wanted this war, that I'd been trying to stop it since I'd been old enough to speak up. "It doesn't make it better, and this will only heal your body... but I hope... I hope nothing like this happens to anyone ever again." At her stomach, she breathes heavy. "You are so brave and so kind to still speak to me... to get to know me, as a goddess, when one did this to you." It truly amazed me that this girl didn't run for it, after spotting my wings.

"It was a man." Mina confesses, "I... I was a little afraid of you, but you are like me. No family, used to serving others homes and sent somewhere foreign without you getting a say." I flush, thinking she had the wrong idea about me being here against my will.

"I wanted to come here," I tell her and she looks down at me alarmed.

"But Master is... terrifying," Mina whispers, looking as if she were frightened just for saying it out loud.

"He's just powerful," I tell her. "I want to be with him but more than that I want to end our war, and the root of it is hatred between our clans. I told you, I'd do anything to end it, including having a life here."

"You're the brave one then," Mina declares, looking away as I heal over her breast. It's a little awkward but her flesh pinkens and the tiny thing is smooth creamy skin when I work over her shoulder, down her arm and massage her fingers. "This won't... fade in the morning or..."

"No, you'll be you," I reassure her and I go up to her neck, over her chipped ear and across her face. As I pull away to look her over, she's crying, feeling her left side with reverence. Before I know what's going on, her arms are around me, her wet face pressed into my collarbone.

"Thank you." She mumbles. "Oh thank you so much Lady Elizabeth. If you ever need anything, anything at all-"

"Just Elizabeth," I say, holding her to me with a loose hold. "Please, it's what friends do."

When she gathers herself, looking so young and glowing fresh, her darkness covers her but just in the shape of a dress. "It's cool that you can use your own magic as clothing," I tell her. Her chest puffs out a little.

"Only the strongest of us have the ability." Mina brags. I ask if I can touch it but she immediately tells me "Oh no, it's my demon- it's hard to control but I manage it. My demon doesn't like anyone- especially after the burning." Oh, okay.

"So, your inner demon is like... something else inside you? That you draw power from? Your darkness?" She nods, telling me it's like a rabid animal always muzzled by their strength of will. When it gets loose, that's when the fights break out among them. "I've felt Meliodas' darkness, and it didn't hurt," I tell her and it's like I just slapped her, her looking at me appalled. I shrug.

"Let me walk you back." She offers, breaking the silence and we talk awhile down the halls, her hands still feeling her smoothed flesh. "I can't wait to show Polly, the surprise might send her into labor!" Mina giggles and I grin, happy for the girl. We turn the corner by the dining room, passing the concave indent that one of the brothers had made in the wall. Down the hall is Meliodas with Chandler talking low at his ear. He had his demon mark, his eyes dark as night and they both stop, seeing us. I take a step to run to him, realize where I am, and cease

"Hi Chandler, Meliodas!" I smile and since Mina had stopped moving, in fear, I take my step back to stand with her. With a look, I tell her "If you want, you can go back. I know the way." Immediately her shoulders stiffen with conviction and she refuses, walking with me towards the two demons.

"She's roaming the castle!" Chandler complains in contempt, motioning towards me but Meliodas is emotionless, before slowly turning from me and glaring at the old man with the lion's mane of white tufts of hair.

"I've told you how I want things. Abide." Meliodas demands, cold and in control, and I realize this is what Mina must see all the time. Meliodas did have a scary aura but I wasn't afraid, he just looked like my Meliodas to me. Mina shook the closer we came and when we passed I brushed the back of my hand against his, hoping he'd know I wanted to greet him warmer but didn't know how to act in front of Chandler and Mina. That this was on his terms. "Elizabeth," Meliodas catches my hand to stop me.

We meet eyes, the black was gone and in its place shined the emeralds of the kind Meliodas. I smile, reaching forward with my opposite hand to touch the tendrils at his shoulder. Velvet and smooth against my fingers. When I pulled away they gripped at me, as if they wanted me to stay. Meliodas' inner feral beast, liked me. His eyes swirled and I wanted to kiss him.

"I've much to tell you." He disclosed, "all good news," the warmth in his voice makes my heart race and I grow hot.

"I'm glad," I tell him, our hands parting. "I'll wait in your rooms," I whisper, knowing he wasn't upset I'd roamed the castle, but wanting him to know where I'd be the rest of the night so he didn't have to go searching.

"Your rooms?" Chandler scolds, looking mortified. Was that a secret? Mina grabs my arm, pulling me down the hall. Chandler gives me a simpering look but I don't know why. Still, I follow Mina's lead, not sure how I should have handled that. With a last look at Meliodas, he's looking at me, pained. Why? I frown, making a mental note to ask him when we were on our own.


	21. A Free Ride

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Twenty-One: A Free Ride

I sat in the study thinking over everything Meliodas told me the evening before. We had another day of all-meat meals as he explained that the Commandments would all be parting soon, that he would take over training the newest troops and that soon the entire city would be free for me to explore after he showed me around, "then our relationship will be known through the city." He had looked apprehensive but determined.

When I'd asked why he looked hurt when we'd been in the hall, he told me he didn't like that I'd acted differently in front of the others. "You can be yourself with me, always. No matter who is watching or where we are." Just thinking about it made my face grow warm. He'd told me he wanted us to be together, to force the world to change for us. For the first time he sounded like he would like us to be long term.

His words were sweet but he still hadn't touched me.

That night we were simply soft with one another. I wasn't near brave enough to initiate our intimacy and I wondered if my joke about keeping his hands to himself had affected him. It couldn't have, right? He knew it was a joke. We'd orgasmed every night since the ocean view on our travels back, yet as soon as we arrived here... nothing. I missed it, my body actually pulsed when I thought about it, as if in anticipation, longing.

I was scratching at Estarossa's head while he napped when the door of the study burst open, Mina falling over herself when she sees me. Her darkness swirled with purple, leaking off her as she moved. Something was wrong. I didn't know her that well, having only spent a day with her but with the expression she was making, anyone would be able to tell how distraught she is.

"It's Polly!" She exclaimed, taking my wrist and forcing me to follow. "She's fallen, I wasn't fast enough to catch her and she's hurt, the baby!" I wasn't fighting her to begin with but with that I took to the air, her letting go of me as I followed her much faster off my feet. Mina guided me to the kitchens. I'd never been in here but Meliodas had pointed out the door to me, which swung wide under Mina's force.

Polly was on the floor, clutching at her tummy and I ignored the tipped chair, spilled broth and meat chunks across the stone under her. I dropped beside her, hands going to her belly but her pained face turned sharp, her grip on my wrist surprisingly painful.

"Save my baby." She orders me, daring me to disobey her.

"Of course," I relent, moving to feel her, exploring with my warm glow. "The amniotic sac is detaching," I tell her, thinking back to so long ago when Lady Graelle had brought me with her on the midwifery visits when I had been a teenager. I shifted my position, leaning over her and pressing on the other side of her stomach. Using as precise a point as possible, I focused my magic to knit the sac back in place. Mina took Polly's hand gripping it as she screamed, in fear or from the feeling of my magic moving inside her, I didn't know.

Still, when I finished we were both panting in heavy breaths. I helped her to stand and Mina was crying, thanking me again while Ms. Polly felt her belly, shocked and looking up at me. "You healed Mina and now this... our family owes you a great deal." I wave her off but she insists.

"Not as repayment but I do want to be a better cook. I promise I'm hopeless but if you could let me watch I may get better." I smile as she nods so quickly. "After tasting Meliodas' cooking, I don't think I'm near as hopeless as him." I make a face with my tongue out, joking to ease the tension and both Polly and Mina stare, more tense than before. What? I grow self-conscious but the moment passes when Mina feels Polly's belly and they talk together about the baby as if I'm not here.

Polly declares herself perfect, even her aches and nausea were gone, she said. I smiled, glad. Polly's darkness had dissipated under my healing glow but it flicked purple around her belly once more, renewed. I'd met her before but after seeing her in pain a moment ago, she did look younger now. Perhaps she'd been suffering for a little while and hadn't said anything? Her eye wrinkles were gone, her mouth rested easier.

I find a rag and start cleaning up the spilled soup, mopping it with what I could find. This spurs the others into action.

"Lady Elizabeth you've done enough, please let me," Polly insists, her long hair trailing in the soup and she flicks it back over her shoulder, drops of soup flying.

"Just Elizabeth. Please." I tell her, "I'm used to scrubbing floors." Mina already knew this but Polly's eyes widened. Did she think the goddesses had slaves too? I smile, about to tell her but the kitchen door opens.

Cusack walked in, dark hair and mustache long and swaying with his walk. He surveyed the three of us on the floor and his lip twitched up. "So this is the goddess that has the young master acting so rash." His voice was low and cold. "He's thinning our strongest. Is that the plan, are you controlling the young master?" My face grew hot.

"She's not like that," Mina defended, standing and pulling me to my feet too. Polly takes a little extra time to raise but she does, the soup cleaned.

"I don't think anyone could make Meliodas do anything." I offer, keeping eye contact with Cusack, I can see him agree with me but he doesn't say another word, just turns around and strolls out.

"I wonder what he wanted," Mina puzzled, but Polly curses, low and long, new words I'd never heard before. "The Soup." She explained and she gets started on another batch. I watch her cut the meat she unfolds from its paper wrapping. Mina fetches some water, bringing the pot with her. I study her movements, trying to learn the seasonings and how she handles the food.

Mina returns with a little boy at her ankles. He was talking a mile a minute, excited about a game him and a friend had invented and he was explaining the rules. When he spotted me, he ran to Polly, hiding behind her legs.

The child feared me.

At the goddess compound Meliodas had been sneered at, feared sure but I hadn't seen children run from him. My heart ached and I looked up, trying to stop my tears from welling. My goals here will be so much harder than I thought. "Pip, this is Lady Elizabeth. She healed Mina and me today. Lady Elizabeth, this is my son- we call him Pip." Polly touched the boy's head.

His spiky hair stuck out all over, reminding me of Meliodas but those were the only similarities, he peeked out from behind his mother at me. His skin was darker, his hair brown and his eyes a pale orange. Polly had the same hair color but that's the only feature he seemed to inherit from her. Pip doesn't stay, taking the farthest-from-me path he could to leave out the back door and into the open air.

"Don't mind him." Polly quips, looking a little bashful as she admits "His father and I tell him the goddesses will get him if he doesn't act right and, well, we may have created that fear." She hardens, "not without cause, it's safer for him to run." I get it, nodding slowly, knowing the stories I'd heard growing up about demons. I imagine demons had similar one about goddesses.

Polly finishes the soup and Mina takes it, carrying it out through the door leading to the castle. The silence spreads between us and just as I was about to go, Polly gathers a string of rabbits, explaining how to skin them. I haven't had this much meat since Megadozer.

I excuse myself, thanking her for letting me watch her. On my way out, a tall man that looks like a grown pip comes in, two dead turkeys, one in each hand were up as if showing off the prize. "How's my sweet, glowing lady today?" He grins, before spotting me. He drops the turkey's, hand on the hilt of his blade in a moment.

"No, Lostian, this is Lord Master's, uh, friend." Polly explains and she turns to me "Lostian hunts for us when he's not patrolling the borders." Oh, a guard. I share my pleasantries before I make my excuses to him as well, flustered. Maybe they ate meat as he provided everything and clearly he was a skilled hunter. I frowned, thinking I may have made another friend but I wasn't sure...

I collected Estarossa and in the courtyard, we played for a while. If I had seeds, which I had not thought to bring, I could make my own garden here. Would Ludociel send me a packet of them if I asked? I doubt it. Maybe Meliodas can find me some? I did not want him to think I don't appreciate his regions meals though. My doubts are strong enough to dismiss the notion with a little frown.

I laid down, watching the clouds when I felt eyes on me. I turned, looking up at the castle and there on the third-floor window was Meliodas. With a big smile, I took to the air, flying up to him. Midway, he opened the window and when I stepped down on the steep roof he reached for me. There were people in there, but he leaned out, blocking me from view and me from seeing in.

Without saying a word, our lips find one another and I feel his face, smiling against him. With a giggle I pull away, kicking off to do a little flip backward, flashing my panties. The wicked smile that spreads across his face paired with the surprised laugh was worth it. My face burns as I drift down to the courtyard again. "I hope that greeting was better," I call out and he smiles.

"The best." He chuckles, but it fades as he turns to frown behind him. With a resigned smile in my direction, he shuts the window. Meliodas told me tonight would be his last night with the commandments. I hadn't met them, I think by design as Meliodas seemed genuinely worried about us crossing paths.

At our next meal, we had turkey, sitting on the floor and I frowned at the squawking bird wishing we were eating him instead. That's meat I would enjoy. Meliodas had come back excited, telling me we had all the days together, going forward. "If I had any warning that I'd be taking you with me when I went in search of just a few moments with you, this would have been handled before you arrived."

I grow hot, picking at the slice of cooked bird and giving Estarossa the darker chunks. "I'm sorry I'm not any use to you," I tell him, trying to meet his eyes but failing. Cusack's words echoed. Meliodas had weakened his city. As a spy, Ludociel would kill for this information but I would never and I hated that Cusack's theory had probably run through everyone's mind.

"Elizabeth," Meliodas' wicked grin spreads, "I know plenty of uses for you." His voice is suggestive and I drop my food, looking up in alarm. He is looking nonchalant as he runs the back of his knuckles down my arm.

"Will you touch me tonight?" There was a waver in my voice and although his eyes swirl in that liquid way he changes the subject. Inside I feel lost for a moment as if the ground dropped out under me and I flail internally.

"Sent any letters yet?" Meliodas questions and I frown, not wanting to think about that.

"No." I give Estarossa the last of my food, too nervous to eat. "I was going to maybe start with writing about being stuck here, not lying but framing it as if I'm under restrictions. It will buy me more time." His brow raises, chin up as if he approved of that course of action. "I want you to read everything before I send it." His nod stops, eyes flashing dark, still looking at me.

"Okay." He says, "I'm excited to show you off. Demons gossip worse than old ladies. I'll have finally returned your kindness to me." I move my licked clean plate, thank you Estarossa, to the tray on the floor between us. We were sitting cross-legged on the rug, as sitting in opposite chairs isn't close enough to one another.

So, because I wasn't ashamed of him in my city, he was returning the favor?

"Meliodas," I start, alarmed. "If you don't want to do this, it's okay. I understand, with the Demon King and the Commandments, it sounds like such a risk to you and-"

"You had just as much to lose, your people don't have princesses, but that's what you are. Like me you were born into a role, your clan looking to you for guidance." He puts his own plate down, leaning toward me. "I admire your strength, while you forced them to accept demons in their city, intending to couple..." His eyes pinched and when they opened they shined with adoration "you were fearless, Elizabeth. I strive to be like that. To face my fights with purpose, not because I've been told."

"Oh." I close the gap between us, kissing him. In no time at all, my hands find his top shirt button as I delved into his mouth. He thought I was fearless and it made me want to be. Meliodas wanted to lead his people into accepting me, too. Just as I undid his top button he pulled away, detangling us and then picking up the tray to bring it just outside our door.

Was I doing this wrong? I bit at my lip, thinking of all the times Meliodas had to lead me into an orgasm. Perhaps he didn't like to be pressed upon, but liked to be the aggressor? Confused, I stood, feeling the sting of rejection. I'd never felt it before. I hadn't ever tried to start something with anyone before. I chalked it up to lack of experience. Meliodas had guided me so skillfully into touching that denying him had never crossed my mind.

"Elizabeth..." Meliodas starts, I can't look up, as just his voice sounded distressed. I searched for anything but that to talk about.

"How old are you?" I question, finding my nerve to look at him, resolute.

"Two hundred and twenty-four." He answers, sounding uneasy but less so than when he'd said my name a moment ago. I couldn't help but gaze over him then, confused. Shouldn't he look older than he does? I knew he was an adult but he looked like he had stopped aging in the middle of his teen years. "You seem surprised?" He questions and I try to brush it off. I'm too late to cover my reaction and I smile ruefully. "How old are you, then?"

"Eh, twenty-nine," I admit and I watch as his eyes widen, pupils shrinking to little points and he halts in his walk towards me.

"A twenty-nine-year-old demon would be a child," Meliodas tells me, studying my curves with awe and bewilderment.

"Demons must mature slowly. I know our lifespans are only off by what... a few hundred years?" I added, hoping he wouldn't think I am a silly child. Ludociel liked to point that out as often as possible, referencing my fevers as if that proved his point. Which it didn't! I know fevers are supposed to be over by fourteen. So what that mine are lasting more than twice that long!

"Oh, I may not have reached my final form, but I think I've shown you how physically mature I am." His devious grin makes me warm in the tummy and I feel myself get wet. I shift, uncomfortable and not sure what to do with this feeling after Meliodas pulled away. The stupid bird squawks and with a little strain, Meliodas offers to help me with my first letter to Ludociel.

We went to the study, him sitting at his desk and with a little coaxing, I sat across his lap. His hands roamed and I wondered if this meant he would touch me tonight but when I froze over my writing Meliodas would breathe into my ear asking "What's got you distracted, Elizabeth?" In his suggestive tone and I would shake myself to focus.

Squawks is sent off an hour later, seemingly just as glad to be away from us as I was to be rid of him. That night, Meliodas and I stared at one another until I fell asleep. My nerve to initiate had been shot and I knew if Meliodas wanted something from me, he usually made it happen, so the fact that he didn't just meant he didn't want too. It was fine, if our relationship stayed like this I would still be happy.

Being next to him calmed me. He was a natural balm to my soul.

When I awoke, Meliodas was dressed, sitting on the edge of the bed leaning over me. He pushed my hair from my face and smiled at me. "We have so much to see." I rub at my eyes, blinking to focus on him. He had the leather vest I'd made for him in Megadozer on and it pleased me to see it again. I gave him a shy smile and his eyes swirled with deep emotion I couldn't place.

I rose, gathering my clothes for the day and burning hot when I see Meliodas wasn't leaving. He actually leaned back against his headboard, arms up as if waiting for the show. He wanted me to undress in front of him? "Oh, where's my brave girl who flashes her panties?"

"That's different," I answer, trying to think of a way to explain a little flash vs. full-on exposure. With him not moving, I relent and spin around shimmying out of my dress. I hear him groan.

"Your ass is a work of art, Elizabeth." He tells me and I know I must have caught fire, I feel so hot. His words make me fumble my new dress and I drop it. I hear the bed creak as he moves and I bend fast, picking up my outfit. Meliodas hums 'mmm' from behind me and I peek over my shoulder. He was laying on his back, head off the mattress to look at my backside from below, his palm was pressed to the center of his chest. I pinched my eyes closed, knowing he probably got an eyeful from there. With a few wiggles, I pulled my dress on, stepping into my panties and reaching for my pants.

"Oh no," Meliodas interjects, rolling off into a flip off the bed, grabbing for my pants but I'm too fast. Or he let me tuck them behind my back and a little game of keep-away began. I stepped to the right, he lunged and I laughed, running up over a chair and flying up when he got clever. His laugh rang out, abandoning the game to stand under me, looking at my panties. I flush, descending down and he bends to see for as long as possible. "Mm, this is just the beginning of how fun no pants can be."

With my face all hot, I put my pants away and Meliodas' grin makes my face burn all the more. I had grown braver with flashing my panties and now I decided to not wear pants? Am I evolving? The fact that this might entice him to touch me again was the main factor in my decision and that would have alarmed me greatly a few months ago.

He's excited today. I gather a few gems intending to trade and take care of Estarossa before we all go. I'm not sure which of them is happier, Estarossa for coming with us or Meliodas, taking my hand and pulling me along. This was the complete opposite side of the coin from when we arrived, sneaking around on high alert. We were out in the open, people shying away from us but staring. Some spotted us and turned about face as quick as they could. They wore clothes though, dresses with low cuts and slits up the legs or trousers with open tie front shirts. It made me feel less out of place as the castle seemed to only use their darkness to cover themselves.

It didn't bother Meliodas though, he pointed out taverns, breweries, and pubs. I commented on how many drinking establishments there were he laughed. "That's what we're known for. Alcohol comes before bread to my people."

"I've never had alcohol before," I tell him, watching him look back at me in astonishment.

"Here, if you know how to walk, you know how to drink." I must look equally as shocked as he smiles, one full of promise.

"Another time." He assures. Estarossa trails around us, sniffing and keeping an eye on me. We spend the whole day, together, getting food from a street vendor who looks like he would rather pull his teeth than have to talk to Meliodas and I. Hands shaking as he passes us the meat kabobs. They were tasty but I still shared with Estarossa.

Meliodas thoroughly groped me all day. Sometimes it was just a little graze that was gone so fast I wasn't sure if I felt it and other times it was full on, face between my breasts, hands palming my behind. I would yelp, and wiggle free. Although, he seemed to like that. He tried to explain it away "Here, groping is the same as holding hands to your people- I'm declaring my intentions to couple you. It's my culture, Elizabeth." I wasn't sure if I believed him, but it could be true. When the evening faded to dark and we still hadn't hit the Market district, Meliodas declared the day a success.

"I'm glad I've gotten to see where you grew up," I tell him, a group of women stopping in their path toward the markets to openly stare, a few of them stepping back in fear. That's when I notice it's not me they are afraid of. It's Meliodas. All those that turned around at the sight of us had been to get away from him?

"I didn't grow up here." Meliodas starts, "I have some memories as a child here but I've only been in this realm constantly once I'd hit puberty." I had lost track of my own thoughts, of what I had said and it took me a second to catch up to him. I was torn then, to ask about why everyone was afraid of him or asking after the realm he grew up in. Unless I was wrong and it was me they were afraid of, it wasn't like I knew for sure.

"I'd like to hear about that realm sometime but... are your people afraid of me, or you?" I queried, a guard was walking around the gate and he stood straight, hands to his side when he saw us.

"Me." Meliodas answers "Most demons are lesser demons, a small candle to my raging inferno, its intimidating and I haven't given them much reason to see me in any other way."

Hm.

"You can roam the city now. Just the thought of incurring my wrath will keep you safe." I flush at his words. He'd only let those he could control through their fear stay in the city? Cusack's words came to mind, that the city was weaker and I confessed my worry to Meliodas as Estarossa ran off to the courtyard in a bounding run of excitement. "I placed the commandments at the border, we would have plenty of notice if anything came our way."

Meliodas gave me a long, look, as if studying me before his eyes eased and his smile returned. "Are you worrying about the demons?"

"Well, yeah," I tell him, thinking of Mina and Polly, plus all the children that ran the streets in dirty clothes. Even before that, all the demons I healed on their last breaths on the battlefield.

That night was another repeat. Chicken in a meat base gravy and I was so over meat at this point, but would never say a word. I took a bath while Meliodas was summoned by Chandler and I played with Estarossa until he returned, waiting up for him. When he did come back, he oozed kindness, telling me he both hoped I went to sleep and that I hadn't.

We went to bed and butterflies erupted, it had been a few days since I'd touched him and I worried over it. I should not have though... he never kissed me any deeper than soft flutter kisses. They were wonderful but I tucked in against him, thinking even after all that groping, Meliodas didn't want to orgasm with me anymore. Still, I was happy to be with him and gave soft touches to his chest. Sweetly, he fell asleep to them, and I closed my eyes to follow him.

The next evening the market district was bustling. We left Estarossa behind. Hulking beasts were buying tools and haggling for prices. The shoppers stayed away from us but the sellers excitedly spotted Meliodas and seeing me on his arm, calling out for 'the lady to look at' this or that. Coins were rarely parted with. I watched and thought, maybe coins came with struggling.

Nothing really drew my eye. Jewelry didn't appeal to me and I didn't need a weapon. I found watching the people, with strange heads and wide mouths full of sharp teeth, doing everyday tasks much more interesting. The only thing that did give me pause was a dress, purple-black that reminded me of Meliodas' darkness, swoop necked with a thin ruffle around it. I pass it up but Meliodas snatched it up.

"Will you take a gem?" I asked the woman who looked at the offered jewel with longing, then to Meliodas with a touch of fear.

"We'll convert your gems to demon gold," Meliodas told me, using his hand to close my fingers around the gem. He gave her a gold piece, the same as the one I had in my bag back in his room and she looked more than satisfied but told me "Come back anytime, dear," folding the dress up and tying it with a cord to carry easier. We walked a few paces to the center of the square, cobblestones underfoot in a large open space.

"Meliodas, since I'm staying with you and eating your food and spending your gold now would you accept the gems as payment for-"

"No." Meliodas doesn't let me finish.

"They were given to me, it's not like-"

"I like taking care of you." Meliodas spins to stand in front of me, tenderly touching my face and tucking my long hair behind my ears. "I've never taken care of anyone before. Have never wanted too." I want to kiss him, looking at his lips, then down at my feet. I reach for and grip his upper arms, growing nervous. I dip halfway, letting him decide. He doesn't hesitate, tilting up to capture my mouth, his hands feeling around my waist to grip at my hips.

Murmurs started and even a gasping scream. I pulled away, flushed for a darker reason and I wiggled my hips under his grip from the onslaught of sensations at my core. He grins, adjusting his firm grip and then tossing me in the air a few feet, grabbing my knees as he ducks under me.

"Gah! Meliodas!" I screech, he spins in place and I'm suddenly sitting on his head. My thighs dangling over either of his ears while he strolls down the street holding me there, his fingers around my calves. A kid points as we pass and I don't have a place to grab, so my arms cross over my chest as he weaves this way and that. He actually stops and talks to someone. Really?

They are at my back and I turn to see, a tall man with gray hair who looks alarmed up at me, mouth long across his face with sharp teeth and too many eyes. He tells the man he'll be down for a drink soon, "I want Elizabeth to try your cinnamon mead." Meliodas looks up, the top of his head rubbing against my core and I gasp "It's delicious, you'll like it." With a slow twist as if he knew just what he was doing, he looked back at the brewery guy, saying his goodbyes.

Meliodas crouches low, bending down and I think he's letting me off for a second before he jumps into the air. I can fly, but this was different, like being anchored to a runaway demon intent on making me uncomfortable. He lands on the roof of a shop, hopping from one to another, laughing at my yelps. "Meliodas!" I yell, my wings tucking in, but ready to open at any indication of falling.

It was like flying backward, hair whipped in my face as I watched the people below look up in shock. We stop on a wall, built around the training grounds and Meliodas sits down. "Down!" I demand, my finger pointing at nothing and he laughs under my butt. With a little pull, I slip back, over his face and into his lap, his hands still holding my knees on either side of his hips.

"Oh." I hush as we align.

"I've always been a runt, slow to mature but now, I can't find a single thing wrong with being short." He expresses, his face pressed into my chest, the perfect height to have access to them in this position.

"Gah!" I wiggle, trying to move off him. That's when I feel him, hard against my core through his pants. I freeze, alarmed and something like yearning spreading from my core and up my spine. He pulled at my thighs, my core rubbing against him and I gasp, finding my hands at his neck and back of his shoulder. "Meliodas..." I whisper, looking around for anyone that could be seeing us like this.

"Hmm?" He asks, obviously enjoying himself as his fingers explore up my legs and under my dress at my hips. My body woke, arching without me deciding too and I froze, he pressed at my core and I don't know what to do. Meliodas takes pity on me, flipping me around to be seated next to him, facing the barren land, the circle pits cut out of the earth had planks holding the sides up. The building in the distance is large and looked like a training center.

Meliodas points out where he will be and that I could come to visit whenever I wanted, that late nights and mornings will be ours. I catch my breath my eyes drifting to the ruined fields. That's why we had meat all the time. These people rely on hunting to live because the Goddesses destroyed their crops. I flush, devastated at the act and my slowness to comprehend this. I wanted to slap my own forehead over and over, cursing myself.

"Elizabeth?" Meliodas' concerned voice reaches me, his face bending to block my view. I open my mouth to respond but behind him a crouched man lands on the wall, balancing to stand. He had black hair sticking up to one side, his face similar to Meliodas' and build almost exact. "Zeldris." Meliodas says, not turning from me until I meet his eyes. I wasn't afraid if he was worried about that.

"You sent everyone away and left a slew of shit to do. I'm not going to do it all while you play with one of your toys." Zeldris scowls, arms crossing. I flush, clearly, he meant me as the toy.

"I'm sorry if I've been keeping you-" I start, hushed and concerned to Meliodas' tense expression but before I could finish, he's gone. Zeldris and Meliodas crashed, skidding away from me down the top of the wall. My hands clasp at my heart as their movements blurred, metal clangs ringing out and people stopped to watch below.

I couldn't tell who had the upper hand as it seemed blow for blow the two were harmonized. This wasn't their first fight. I knew it from Meliodas but seeing it, it was like a dance they had practiced their entire lives. Some people moved on, seemingly bored but I couldn't look away for more than a few seconds, afraid for him, for them both.

Meliodas' laugh rings out and I hear him give a sharp "Fine."

Zeldris scowls as he feels the shallow slash on his face, it trickled blood. "You went too far."

I couldn't see Meliodas' face but I heard him, "You insulted my lady." It's flippant like he was explaining why it rained during a storm. Like Zeldris should have expected this. Zeldris swipes at his bleeding face and looks over at me, one eyebrow cocked.

"You risk her when you feel this way?" Zeldris asks, genuinely alarmed. His confounded look turns to Meliodas, staring as if trying to figure him out and failing. "You are overconfident." Zeldris warns, stepping off the wall, calmly landing to walk below and calling back over his shoulder "I'll not do your duties a third day, Meliodas."

Our easy days were over, it seemed. I'll be back to entertaining myself.


	22. Giving

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Twenty-two: Giving

I found myself in a routine. Mina and I would clean whatever she was responsible for that day, I would watch Polly cook and whenever either of them had to run errands outside, I would tag along. Both of them always took Lostian with them when they went and Pip had finally warmed up to me. Mostly because of Estarossa. That little boy loved my dog. He'd beg me to let him play with him and usually, almost always, I agreed.

Today I decided I would visit Meliodas. Estarossa trailed behind me and when I reached the castle gate to enter the city, Lostian was patrolling with another demon. This one had two heads, looking more like Tamriel than any goddess I'd seen. Well, Tamriel had three heads, but with one of these demons face looking old and wrinkled, the other young, it was similar enough.

"You!" The two-headed demon said, hand pointing at me aggressively and I froze. Lostian stepped between us but the Demons heads both smiled, arms raising to clasp before him. "You are the bountiful beauty! I'd not forget you- you saved my life! I was in the darkness when you- your light, it reached me, pulling me from death's door." I flush, Lostian relaxed and I try to reassure the man, it was nothing. "We drink to you! The pub, Grapes Wrath, come sometime you'll drink for free if any of us our there. So many of us here have stories of you. Yupies was saved twice!"

The man goes on, naming so many of his friends that he knew I'd healed. Lostian had to stop the guy, putting his hand on his wide shoulders saying "Conret! This is Lady Elizabeth, the Lord Master himself-"

"Oh! Please excuse me, Lady Elizabeth." The demon, Conret, bowed, actually bowed. "If there is anything, anything at all that you need. I'm your man."

Usually I refused any kind of compensation, I honestly didn't need or want any, but there had been something I wanted to do since I realized I could do something. I turned to the two of them, explaining what I planned on doing. "Even if you don't want to warn people, or keep them back, that's fine, but I'm going to do this, it will help the entire clan and I have the capabilities."

Lostian whistled, loud and quick. I flinched at the unexpected noise but after a pause, demons started dropping from the towers and appearing around the gate. There were seven, all different sizes. Three women, all of them armored with a T through an X symbol on their chest. "Lady Elizabeth, this is my unit, The Shields of Faith, we have served together for years. We will assist you." I received a glare from the bulbous demon and an open scowl from the women with spiky purple hair, the third eye on her forehead the only outward 'demon' thing about her. The rest of her looked shapely.

With Conret and Lostian relaying my plan, the ones who hadn't been openly hostile were looking at me with hope, making me more determined. The bulbous man lost his anger but seemed reserved while the third eye woman crossed her arms as if she didn't believe me.

"I just need you to stop anyone who would think I'm a threat, to explain what I'm doing," I tell them. They agree, Lostian giving them tasks while I take to the skies, heading to the blackened ash fields of the demon territory. Once I do this, the demons would be one step closer to healing.

I'd seen the starving children...

Since Meliodas starting training the new troops, he confessed he worried after them. He had told me 'Children, too young to be training for battle and too skinny for this brutality...' It was the scarcity of food, the lands were being over hunted and I could do something about it! I should have told Meliodas, but it occurred to me this morning that I could fix it and I didn't want to waste any more time. I had a whole unit spreading the word and once I doubted any demon here would stop me, I form a plan.

The fly there takes a few minutes, at a decent speed. Demons loved their open space. I centered myself among the burned field, stretching my magic muscles as I stepped down to the ruined earth. All around me but at the edges of the ash, The Shields of Faith stood, spaced out to make a barrier. I didn't want the people to be afraid or to think another goddess was attacking.

With a quick, deep breath I spun in place, stepping back. Ash dusted up, over my calves and on my dress. This was the light of grace, a scorching power bestowed to Ludociel and it had been used to starve women and children. Hate and war, it wrought suffering, begot more hate and more war. There is no end to a circle.

I would make one.

A reached inside, finding the thread of healing magic coiled there, and I pulled. Soft light swirled around me, flicks of it lashing out as it moved. With a heavy yank, a beam of it shot into the sky and I rooted myself, arms and wings wide as I focused on my goal. End the suffering, heal the earth, restore what this clan had lost at the goddesses hands. No child should starve. Light radiated out as I reach deeper into the earth to find healthy ground.

This ash went deep. They must have been starving for some time, with this much damage, it would have taken years to recover their harvests. I shot to the sky, inside my beam and slowly I forced the light to radiate out of me. Waves of it rippled across the fields and I faced the sky, straining to keep healing. I tugged at the thread of my magic, unspooling it at a rate I'd never attempted before. More. Deeper. Farther...

The ruined earth responded. I didn't see it, but I could feel the green growing, the seeds sprouting. I needed more, I had miles to heal of this damage.

The glow around me pulsed, the white light rippling over the new sprouts, flowers, and grass below. I heard a scream and a loud boom but I needed one more good wave to go beyond blooming, to ripen. What good was a field if I couldn't coax the plants below to harvest. I wanted them heavy with grains, the vegetables to be so large they sagged, I pulled so much goddess magic from myself I dropped a foot before catching myself. The last trickles of my magic receded back into me and I felt exhausted.

With a smile, sweating, I looked at the overgrown field below, the miles of food. And the large white mountain to my right, so close I could... Wait... What? It was covered in moss, and I looked up and up forever it seemed until I met black beady eyes. I'd woken an Albion.

Oh. Shit.

With a roar, the beast's meaty arm swung at me and I flew up, dodging the thing. My stomach dropped, dread settled in as I sped up, flying toward the border to get the thing away from the gathered people. I looked back, The Shields of Faith were keeping the folks back. A handful of demons were firing dark magic toward the Albion but it wasn't focused on them, thankfully.

A series of large white and green spikes grew from the Albion as I led it farther toward the splintered barrier. I followed the path it took toward me, trying to keep the destruction focused on where it has already been. The beast took a breath, puffing up and then the spikes shoot, one blasting through my wing, others exploding into the field and a few at the people below. I heard a scream, it echoed and I searched for who was hurt with a quick tilt around. I didn't know Albions could do that...

The Albion took another grab at me. With my shattered wing, I wasn't fast enough and his fist squeezed around me. As my ribs cracked, I found the source of the scream, me, as it died in my throat. My shoulders are dislocated, the pressure excruciating as the beast clutches me in its grip. With the last of my magic, I focus it, ark-ing the beasts hand apart. It slices to pieces, rather than disintegrates, my power depleted to nothing from the effort it took.

For a brief moment, I'm suspended in the air before slowly, I fall, gravity taking me. Its blood and wet skin chunks slapping at me from the force of my ark. I hear the beast roar, a 'shiiink' followed by a loud crash and just before I hit the vines of ripened vegetables, I'm wrapped in strong, comforting arms. Meliodas? He spins. His momentum too much as he skids, digging in his feet into the earth, kicking up greenery and earth. Inches from the logs that marked the edge of the demon city, we stopped.

"Heal yourself," Meliodas demanded, demon mark a half circle on his forehead, his dark eyes leaving no room for nonsense. It hurts to talk, my ribs crushed inward. I can taste the blood.

"Nothing's left," I whisper, my shoulders are dislocated so I couldn't reach up to touch him. Meliodas is intense, looking into me, then at the field. He understood what happened in a matter of seconds. He adjusts his hold, more gentle than he'd ever been before but I still wince, tucked against him.

"Our oldest Albion!" A woman screeched and I moved my eyes in that direction but couldn't turn my neck. A sliver of warmth spread up my spine and I channeled the renewed energy into healing my ribs so I could breathe normally again. It helped, but it hadn't done enough.

"You killed it." I heard Zeldris' voice, it sounded resigned. Then, he's at Meliodas' side and looking down at me. "You are an idiot aren't you?" He insults and I don't have anything left in me to react.

"Of course she is!" That shrill voice exclaimed again.

"I would say optimistic." Meliodas defended, his demon mark spreading to the three-quarters whole."Or perhaps you didn't notice the lush fields. A few fought to aid her, but not nearly enough of them stepped up for what she's accomplished." Zeldris looks about, scowling.

When Zeldris returned to meet my gaze, his eyes glowed green when they'd just been burning charcoals. "You've put an end to our famine." He sounds different and he opens his mouth to say more but that lady's voice sounds, closer and behind me.

"If she dies, it's her own fault. The treaty would hold." She steps closer and from down here, I can make out her wide mouth, split ear to ear, light pink hair atop her head and a cute dress without a speck of dirt. The strangest thing about her, she had kitty paws instead of hands, or it looked like something closer to paws than fingers. She was pretty. She looks down at me, her long lips tilting up in a grin, "Then you can come to my bed, Lord Master, you'd forget all about this little-"

Meliodas shifted my weight, his arm disappears from under me a moment and when my head rested in his elbow again, she was gone.

"Deal with them," Meliodas ordered Zeldris, nodding his head toward the crowd. "Find out who knew of this and didn't inform me." I open my mouth to protest whatever plan he had for The Shields of Faith but my whisper was lost in the wind as he ran, cradling me. Cheers followed us through the city and Meliodas's dark scowl silenced anyone who saw him. "They will take whatever you give them and still look down on you." He met my eyes, a dark cold had settled in his black orbs. "Those fools are not worth an ounce of your hurts."

One of my wings was broken and I knew I was bleeding internally with a few ribs just as bad as my wing. I try to touch his face, my shoulder bouncing uselessly. I try to tell him I would have healed the fields regardless of how the demons felt about me, but only a noiseless breath escaped. I smile, putting all my relief that I hadn't died and successfully ended his peoples slow descent into starvation into the expression.

"You aren't crying." He notes with a little confusion but his face relaxes and his lips tip as if he's figured something out. We reach the castle, the gates flinging open from a force I couldn't see. I shrug, my shoulders flopping. There was no reason to cry. I could take my own pain. Besides, the adrenaline was still coursing through me from my attempt to flee that Albion. As we near his room his pace grew much slower and my whisper could be heard without the rushing.

"Meliodas... don't be angry with them." I breathe out, choppy. "I am an idiot." I should have thought of the Albion dormant at the edge of their territory. I thought with Lostians Unit that it would be okay. I had only considered the people and their reaction. I hadn't thought about it long enough.

"Heal." He demands, walking back first into his rooms to hold the door open with his behind, his eyes staying a solid black. I wanted to coax the green out but I needed to feel him. Touch was the key to ease Meliodas.

"Can you push my arms back in their sockets?" I request, watching his black eyes widen. We enter his bedroom and careful of my bleeding wing, he lays me down on his bed. "If I could move them, I could help." Meliodas nods, his hair falling forward as he moves my shoulder. I talk him through it, him feeling my shoulder and with a quick pop, my shoulder is relocated. I grit my teeth, refusing to show my pain. He does it on the other, minding the broken wing spanned out across the bed.

As soon as the second one is relocated I reach for him, feeling his face. He leans into it as if starved for my skin. Meliodas was worried. "I'll be okay," I tell him.

"You're bleeding, you can't breath deeply," Meliodas explains, dark eyes opening as he moves to sit beside my hip on the edge of the bed. He rips my dress apart and his darkness flares around him as he looks at me. I move my hands down my skin, healing with what I'd gained on the trek here, the surface wounds. Internally, I was exactly the same but Meliodas' darkness stills and his shoulders ease. He couldn't see my hurt anymore.

"I'll be okay." I tell him, "I just need some time." My fingers trail down his cheek, folding into his hair and with a slow breath, the green leaks back into his eyes. "I wanted to help. Don't be angry with them." I confess to him again, not sure if he comprehended it the first time. He nodded, heavy at first before he took my hand in his, moving it to my side and holding it there.

We stared for some time before a devious smile spread across Meliodas' face. "There is a silver lining." He notes, a touch of playful tinting his tone. "Now I know it will take a lot more than the power you radiate when you orgasm to draw any demons attention."

"Oh!" That's why he had kept our touches so innocent? Had he thought my glow would alert a guard or one of those beasts? I smiled, soft, thinking it was nice he had put my safety before our roaming.

"You've lost too much blood, you didn't pinken." He worries, his playfulness gone as he touches the apples of my cheeks and dark green eyes roamed over my body. I think he realized then that I had superficially healed my most visible wounds for his benefit as he frowns, eyes flaring black. His fingers moved from my cheeks to touching my ribs, as they were exposed from the quick work he made of my dress. Could he tell the difference? Did he know my body well enough to notice they were fractured?

He stayed with me, cleaned the ash from my body and talked to me about the troops, his brother and of what he expected of his people after what I'd done for them. When I felt my power return in little bursts, I used it, feeling over my wing so I could fold it back to make room for Meliodas. It was well into the night when the pain receded enough to sleep. I hadn't the strength to dress and for the first time, I slept naked with a man. One so gentle with me it made me ache.

I woke, tucked under the blankets and hearing rustling noises. With heavy limbs I sat up, keeping the covers over my chest. Meliodas was undoing his pants, his shirt already tossed to the floor and I yelp as the tie is pulled and they drop to his ankles. I pull the blankets over my face, sinking down under them in chagrin. I hadn't meant to be a peeper.

"After you've stroked me off more than a handful of times." Meliodas laughs at himself, a joke I didn't get. There is a long pause while he dressed before he tells me, "You can oogle me all you like. Touch me all you like. Although I see now I've been remiss in my services to your body, Elizabeth."

The covers are yanked and suddenly I'm exposed from the waist up. With a gasp, I reach for the end of the blankets but Meliodas leaps through the air, clothes on, to land beside me. "I see your coloring is back to normal." His hands' span across my bare breasts "I'm only checking for fractured ribs, I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea."

My body can't help but respond, the painful aches replaced with a yearning. I pant, unsure what I should do. Meliodas had to go and I already caused so much trouble yesterday. "You aren't angry with me? You seemed so upset-"

"You're okay, so everything's okay." I can't help but relax, wondering at his meaning. "Don't worry," Meliodas assures, liquid green swirling in his orbs as he leans down, his hands groping my chest but his kiss is soft and unhurried. "I encourage you to stay in bed, to leisurely touch yourself in preparation for when I return." His fingers trail down my tummy, over my belly button and I cover my face as I'm sure it's caught fire. Wait, what?

"Touch myself?" I ask, looking up at him. "Like... you touch me?" I whisper in disbelief, knowing it wasn't possible. His green eyes squeeze closed, as if in pain but when he looks at me again, they are twinkling with delight. What had pleased him? Why did my core throb with him looking at me like that? The fingers that had stopped at my warm, lower tummy restarted its path, dipping under the blankets. With a little turn, he missed my mound by a hair's breadth and finds my inner thigh.

"Oh." I shiver, not cold in the least, his mouth kisses my collarbone. My hands shake as I run my fingers through his messy blonde hair.

Ever so slowly, the hand at my thigh spreads, caressing and just before his touch meets my core, he takes a sharp breath against me. With the first contact, I mirror his noise, unable to resist fisting his locks in a firm grip. He circles my nub and I press my body closer to his, unconsciously. "You're so wet," Meliodas mutters and I let go, sitting to pull the blankets away from my lap to see. He groans, looking at his hand on my slit and I grow unbearably warm.

I'd orgasmed in the water the first time and every time after that, Meliodas had always cleaned us up. His spilled seed and my wetness. "I won't be able to focus, knowing what's waiting for me, naked and wanting in my bed," Meliodas intoned, having moved to hold himself up, in synch with me, his cheek nuzzling at the rounded curve of my chest.

He pulls away reluctantly. I bite my lip to hold back my whimper as he tucks the covers back over me, slowly trailing his fingers up my body as he moves. He's hard, tented in his pants and I flush, pulsing at the sight. When I meet his eyes, he's grinning, brash and unashamed. He had reason to be confident and I couldn't help but smile shyly up at him.

"I want to show you something new, something else your body is capable of," Meliodas smirked, adjusting his pants. "Tonight." He promises, his eyes full of mischief. With a soft kiss goodbye, he heads to the door and I flush, chest tightening with too many emotions. I sit, blankets under my arms as I watch him move.

"I'll miss you," I whisper when he's across the room and he looks back, grinning at me.

"I could look at you, like this, forever." He hushes and I feel my face while gripping the blanket, trying to catch the breath I seemed to have lost. Meliodas slipped out, I could hear him greeting Estarossa on the other side of the door. There had been a silver lining to that Albion waking. Meliodas was acting like himself again and along with his return the nerves awoke with this path open before me again. My excitement to see what else he could show me paired with my anxiety made for a tense cocktail in my belly.

With a little curiosity, I felt my own core. My fingers rubbing at my nub was like a distant echo to how it is when Meliodas does it. I could feel the pulse, the heartbeat and I did enjoy it, but I didn't want to orgasm without Meliodas so I gave up, intent to take a bath to ease my sore body. I shook out my wing, feeling where it snapped. I hated wing injuries. They were most sensitive.

After my bath, a tray was set out for me in the main room. Mina must have come by. I opened it, thrilled to see fruits and bread. The meat portion immediately went to Estarossa who didn't seem to get sick of eating it and we scarfed everything down together.

Estarossa was antsy and I felt like myself again, my aching muscles rejuvenated. So, I dressed and went to find Mina. When my search came up empty. I ran into Cusack and Chandler who both were stone-faced but not aggressive. Not much had changed as neither responded to my greeting. In the courtyard, I walked around the castle and as I neared the gate, I heard calls.

"Lady Elizabeth!" They shouted.

"Goddess of life!" Another pleas. With a few more steps I understood what was happening. People were begging. Curious I went toward the noise but Conret, the two-headed guard of The Shields of Faith, blocked my way. Both of his faces looked anxious to see me, frowning and looking around.

"You shouldn't be here." Conret's voice is low and my brows crinkled. "I have been told you are still recovering from ending our famine, those that beg can wait."

People needed my help? "I'll decide where I should be and what I should do," I tell him, dodging around Conret fainting right and kicking off to the sky to fly over to the gate. Estarossa trailed after me below. A group of demons were there, held back by the gate, guards inside and on the top, calling down orders for them to leave and not to get too close.

Woman held limp children, a man supported a wobbling woman whose head lulled from side to side and the crowd filled the pathway. These are the dying. Most of these demons had obvious demonic features. Extra limbs, purple skin and spikes, overlarge orange eyes and extra mouths. The guards on the inside of the gate spotted me. Of course, it was the purple haired woman with the third eye and the bulbous demon man. Both had helped me with the field, keeping the people back and I thanked them for their help before they could say a word.

The woman looked like she had no idea who I was in that moment, openly gaping at my words of appreciation and the bulbous man shook his head from side to side as if unwilling to accept what was happening. Using their reaction against them, I slip by telling them. "I will help." Estarossa's already bouncing at the gate, the people there calling out all the louder now that I'm in view.

"Our savior!" A woman shouted and I frowned. I picked up the bouncing puppy and I take to the air, flying over the people.

"I am not a savior!" I yell. "I just have the ability to heal. It's the only thing I'm good at." The people hush, weary of me but desperate enough to stay "I will help those close to death but I'm not strong enough yet to help everyone. Is there a, hospice or, sick house?" I ask, but as soon as my words die the lot of them are scrambling for my attention again. Holding up the children and crying out in agony.

Behind me, standing on the wall that connects the gate of the castle, a woman calls my name. "Lady Elizabeth." I turn, the purple haired demon is there, shapely even in her armor. "I can take you to the sick house." She jumps down and the people below back away from her, scrambling. I follow, feeling out in the crowd for anyone close to dying.

We walk a few paces when I catch the trail of death. A fever, a child. I drop, pushing through the more persistent people to find where the trail ends. A woman wrapped in rags and smelling like old mildew had a small girl in her arms. I couldn't see the woman's face but she held the child up at my approach. She looked about four, which in demon years would be more years than that. Her face was pretty, with no extras and no wide spreading of her features, it was her legs though that marked her as a demon, they bent backward like a goat, with white fur on her little ankles and feet.

The child had on a wrap dress and I put my hands on her head, touching the damp white hair that flowed from her head. She's had days and days of fever, so deep in her slumber. "She's not eaten in three days..." The woman cawed, her voice sounding thick with emotion. "I have nothing, just my little Delphine."

My hand glowed, the death in the child receding but it still had a hold of the child. Delphine was on the brink, maybe beyond my help.

"Let's go to the sick house." I tell her, the girl's face tensing and the woman cries, saying "She moved! She's not moved in days."

The group follows us, the purple haired demon telling me her name was Pix and she took command much better than I could. She had the voice for it, ordering people to stay in the sick house, that I would come to them. Surprisingly she even yelled that I had no obligation to help anyone and spreading their illnesses to everyone else only harmed the demon race.

Outside, the sick house looked like an abandoned church. Bell tower on top and rusted gates in the front. Inside, it looked just as bad. The main room is rows of bedrolls with the sick laying and moaning all around. People were milling around but it didn't look like they worked here, but rather, helped because someone they knew was sick.

I'd heard of sick houses. Among the goddesses, it was just the fever of maturity that hit our young. We didn't have anything like this. I was familiar with healing, I knew I didn't have enough after healing the fields to do any more than stave off death to those closest to it. A claw-footed man introduced himself as the caretaker, Mr. Millian. Instantly he asked me to help, clasping my hands with his blood-stained ones as if he were a moment away from falling to his knees. He didn't have to.

Shucking my coat, I tucked it in a corner and got to work. It wasn't like the battlefield, but I imagine the healers' stations at either base were faced with this kind of work. People tried to intercept me, asking me to see their loved ones first but I kept repeating "I only have so much left" and "I must help those worse off." Some demons, even in their throes of agony refused my help. One old demon demanded I leave and when I refused, telling him I could do some good here, he tried to stand, as if he would fight me. The young man at his side apologized, and I moved on, hoping the man could recover on his own.

There were too many orphan children, they huddled together and when I asked Pix about them, she said Mr. Millian let them stay if they helped him. They were starving, I could see it in their faces. The food in the fields better reach the people that needed it most. I grew flush, thinking of all the smaller acre farms on the other half of the demon territories. Maybe if I do them in little bursts I won't wake another Albion?

I told them I would be back, to not bring their sick to me as it put others in danger. Some were angry I hadn't gotten to their loved one or that I hadn't healed them completely but there wasn't anything I could do, my magic was gone again. I left and Pix walked me back, Estarossa on our heels.

"You are too kind." Pix sighs, sounding nervous and contrite. "I shouldn't say anything, it's not my place." She starts and I watch her third eye pinch closed with concentration. "Lord Master has a short attention span when it comes to partners." All three of her eyes open to stare into me and I can tell she's talking from personal experience. I flush, thinking of all the curves under her armor, of Meliodas' hands on her plumpness.

"Oh," I breath, uncomfortable but I smile. "You loved him, once?" I could understand that. She grows stiff, her back straightening in alarm raising her up an inch or so.

"No! Do you love him?" Pix inquires, looking at me as if the question hadn't ever crossed her mind. As if loving Meliodas was a ridiculous notion. My heart dropped as I realized she thought there was nothing there to love. We reached the gates and I paused, Estarossa bounding off into the open courtyard inside.

"I've never been in love before, so I don't know..." I answer honestly. "I suppose that means no, as I would know, wouldn't I?" Pix looks relieved as if falling for Meliodas would be troubling. I understood the two of them hadn't been right for one another. I touch her arm, thinking maybe this was why she didn't like me when she first saw me, the two of them had a history. "Thank you for accompanying me today."

"When you return to the sick house, find me. You'll need someone when it gets too harsh." She touches my arm, mirroring me with the opposite side. I'm not sure if she's talking about Meliodas or about the demons that swarmed me for help. I smiled anyway, wondering if she ever met the green-eyed, kind soul, I knew. Meliodas had never been harsh with me, he was always warm and understanding.

Pix and I parted as friends and I thought of Mael. We weren't right for one another, but that didn't mean with someone else he couldn't find the same kindness I found with Meliodas. I would have to try to explain that to Pix next time we journeyed to the sick house.

The silver of the moon shone overhead and I knew that meant Meliodas would be done soon. I rushed to bathe and change, flushing in anticipation that Meliodas is going to show me another thing my body could do.


	23. New Encounter

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter and I'm very glad to have her.

Chapter Twenty-Three: New Encounter

Mina delivered our food, arriving before Meliodas. While I helped her move the pitcher and trays from the cart I told her about Pix. Mina had flushed and I thought for a second that she too had been with Meliodas but then I remembered how spooked she'd been just passing him in the hall. No way.

"I don't really know Pix." Mina gossips, "I know Peronia, though. Pink hair, paws. She wants to be in either of the brother's beds. Although, I don't think either has ever accepted her. I don't know for sure, obviously." Mina was clearly uncomfortable sharing this with me, looking toward the bedroom door. She knew I am in his bed, but not in the way she thought, not really.

"It's okay, I do think Meliodas is rather attractive, so it makes sense," I admit, growing hot at the thought of his muscled torso, calves, and biceps. "I understand why someone would want to be with him," I confess, almost feeling his soft kisses goodbye linger on my flesh.

"No. He's terrifying." Mina blurted, she's joking but her eyes hid the truth behind her words, she was afraid of him.

It was rather unfortunate that Meliodas chose then to come in, darkness ablaze around him and a devious grin on his face. I knew immediately he had heard what we said and was trying to look scary, a rouse I could see through with barely a side glance. "I'm attractive, eh? That's better than your last confession of nice." I burn, knowing he was referencing how I had described our intimate encounter by the sea.

"Lord Master!" Mina squeaked, backing away with a bow and gathering her cart to escape so fast I could hardly watch. "I apologize, I should never have presumed, to still be in your rooms after, I-"

"Mina, he's not mad," I tell her and she looks at me and back at Meliodas as if she thought I was crazy to think he was anything other than murderous. "He's joking," I explain and her eyes go wider still. I giggle. Meliodas comes to stand beside me, his hand finding its way to my butt and I yelp. His eyes are clear, his darkness receding.

"I don't think there is a word to describe how attractive I find you, Elizabeth," Meliodas assesses, kneeling behind me to put his face right at my behind, his hands trailing up my legs. "Have you been making friends?" He asks as if chatting about the weather, acting as if he wasn't inches from my core.

"M-Mina and I... I've told you about her." I stammer and he pulls my knees apart, popping his head between my thighs as I rebalance my weight.

"Oh, you're Mina. Elizabeth's had many good things to say." He quips. Meliodas turns his head to brush his lips across my inner thigh. I hiss at the contact, trying to act normal in front of my friend as if this wasn't happening.

"Y-yes, Lord Master." Mina runs for the door, looking at me as if she had no choice but to abandon me and felt horrible about it.

"You're scaring her!" I scold, reaching down to slap his hands away, over my thigh and Mina gasps in alarm. Meliodas laughs, dodging my sloppy attempts to get him off, using it to his advantage to touch higher. "It's okay, Mina. I'll see you later." I tell her, giving up and waving to her, resigned to my fate and embarrassed.

As soon as the door shut, Estarossa rolled over in his sleep and I wiggled free, turning just to fall to my knee and wrap him up in a hug. My cheek to his, as I bent forward. "I missed you more, somehow, today," I tell him, meaning it. He sighs, relaxing into me, his hands finding my head and lower back. We hold one another until his belly growls. I laugh, standing and pulling him up with me.

We eat together, sitting on the floor again so we can touch legs, just to be closer. I tell him about the sick house and with concern, he asks me not to do anything I'm uncomfortable with. "I don't want anyone taking advantage of you." He puts his utensil down, eyes sparkling as he touches my cheek "except for me, I will thoroughly take advantage of you." He laughs and the sound fills me with wonder, my lips twisted up with a will of their own.

"I want to help." I tell him, flushing as I turn to him, his palm warm as I admit "and... I've only ever done things I want to do, with you." His eyes lighten, his smile softens and he's looking at me with such tenderness I wonder if anyone other than him has ever looked at me like this before.

"I want you to do something for me." He requests. I'm curious, wondering if it had to do with what he said he would show me this morning. Slowly, I nod, giving a little smile. Meliodas looks over our mostly finished meals. "Estarossa, it's all you, boy." He addressed scooping me up and rising up with ease. His salacious grin as we entered his room sets my heart to race. I held on, the sudden onset of butterflies making me nervous.

"What, uh, what is it you want me to do?" I quaver, hoping if he told me about it before I tried it, I might not feel so out of my depth.

"I want you to undress me," Meliodas explains, dropping my legs and holding my shoulders steady as I find my footing. I look over his shirt and slacks, his feet bare as he had taken his shoes off in the main room. "I want you comfortable with my body, to look or touch or explore."

My hands come up, flail a little as I don't know where to start and with a little flutter, I clasp them to my chest. Face aflame, I breath deep, it felt forward of me to undress him.

"When you touch me," Meliodas runs his hand down his torso, "It's like my hearts hum in unison and for just that moment, everything is right in the world and I feel... serene..." With his rough hands, he takes mine, pulling them to his chest and I could feel his hearts reverberate. "That's why, anywhere and anytime, please, just touch me."

I wasn't going to say no before but after processing what he said I felt emboldened. My touch was powerful to him, like his was to me. With a steadying breath and a small shared smile, I focused on my task. Undress Meliodas. My heart raced with his as I went down the front of his shirt, popping all the buttons in a line without actually touching him. I bent to reach, my hair falling to slide down my arms and the sensation sent shivers down my spine, already sensitive.

My hands shook with a mix of anticipation and nerves. I find myself mentally pep talking myself, 'you're being silly, you've seen him hard and spilling seed, why would this be different?' Of course, most of those times had been with some kind of clothing on. I don't think tonight there will be anything between us. We were diving back in where we left off and this time, we were in complete privacy.

The back of my knuckles made contact with the rigid muscles at his core, I felt the contours as I moved up, over his stomach and chest to dip my hand under the collar of his shirt. I mirrored the motion with the other, folding the shirt behind his shoulders and trailing with both my hands down his arms. He's very defined. I find myself reacting to him as his shirt bunches at his wrists I adjust to step around him. While circling him my hands trail across his chest, over his biceps to stop at his rippling back muscles, my fingers graze down his spine. He arches to my touch slightly, prolonging the contact.

He watches, head turning over his shoulder as I touch from his neck to across his shoulders and down. My core tightened and his breathing changed. I forgot about his shirt, reaching around to feel his ribs and I lean in, kissing the back of his neck where his shoulder begins. His breath catches, a sharp intake and I shiver, my hair cascading against him.

"I like how you feel," I whisper against the skin at his back, shocking myself. His head falls forward, as if in defeat and that's when I remember my given task. Without breaking our contact, I explore his bicep, over his forearm and tug at his sleeve until it falls free. I slow before pulling the other sleeve free, knowing it would be the ties of his pants I would work on next. With my face already flushed, I kissed down his spine giving myself some time, his low groan spurring me on and I feel around his hips over his abs. I pooled in my panties, the warmth in my core aching from this exploration is made worse with our closeness and his heady scent.

His shirt tumbled to the floor and silence fell as I shakily removed my body from his, leaving one last kiss on his shoulder. Why am I so nervous about this? Or... is this excitement? I walk slowly to stand before him, his head still hung forward, hair chaotic and I sank to my knees, sitting back on my heels. Before I reach for him, I look up. His eyes are closed, his face still, mouth parted as if he were being beaten but... liking it? He breathed in, seemingly in preparation for the next blow, as if about to take another lashing and anticipating it with fervor.

"Meliodas?" I ask, and his eyes pop wide, green and overcome with shock at seeing me positioned before him. He was hard, straining against his trousers and I reached forward, grazing him as I found the ties there. As if unable to watch, his head fell back, chin high but immediately he changes his mind and moves to stare down at me with wild eyes. I didn't think I could flush any deeper. I have to look away, his intensity was too much to endure with my own feelings and body overwrought with anticipation. I wiggled my hips uncomfortable with how much I needed to be touched.

If he looked at me like that much longer, I wasn't sure what I'd do but I'd have to do something. I tugged at the knot, my free hand resting at his thigh above his knee. Slowly, the string pulled through its own loop and with a little jolt, it was undone. I flinched as if I didn't expect it. With my fingers, I felt along the corded V that pointed to his hard member until they hit the top of his pants. His muscles rippled there, hips moving forward a centimeter before stopping himself, tensing to keep himself still.

I dipped down, into the loosened waistband, his coarse curls tickling the tips of my fingers. Without any preamble, I simply used my other hand to loosen the trousers and in a clean swoop, let them fall. He bounced, his rounded head almost purple, the veins along his shaft straining and I had the strangest impulse to lick it. I flush, removing my hands to cover my face but I shake my head to stop myself mid motion. Not without asking, I could touch him though, and my hands find his knees to trail up.

He was expecting my hands, but with them creeping up his thighs I leaned forward, grazing my cheek along his length. Meliodas groaned, low and deep in his chest. He was impossibly hard, solid against the heat of my skin. I followed his length, moving my lips across his head to switch sides and his groan halted altogether, his breaths ceasing. I had forgotten myself and with a shake, I pulled away and I watched a bead of his milky cream form out of the tip's slit.

"Can I...?" I ask, unsure what I wanted to do exactly and I look up, trying to find the answer in him. He looks blown away as if this is the last thing he expected when he brought me in here.

"You don't know how lovely you are." He rumbled, reaching out to cup my face. He stared as if he didn't believe he was truly seeing me. "I want to explore that with you but I need to worship you, repay you in kind." His throaty voice eases. "You're bravery needs a hearty reward." He bends, his hands leaving my face to grip my hips and suddenly he lifts me to my feet in a clean swoop. I grip his forearms on the descent and his smile is contagious, my heart lifting with my body.

Meliodas had no hesitation when undressing me, pulling my dress clean off me in one swoop up. I lifted my arms and adjusted my wings, laughing as my hair cascades all around and I push it back to smile at the naked man before me. Immediately, I flush, realizing I am just in my panties. With much effort I resist covering myself, force my arms at my sides, fists forming by my thighs and I can almost feel his gaze.

"You... tear me up," Meliodas chokes, sounding as if he were hurting but looking as if he were experiencing the opposite. He's shaking, his hands hesitant but as soon as he makes contact, flesh to flesh, it seems like he surrenders to his urges. He's everywhere, face at my neck, hands roaming my back and up my leg, his hardness pressing against my inner thigh. I gasp, his bare torso pressed against mine.

There's no recuperation time. The sensations from his movements across my backside while he simultaneously sucked at my neck and pressed his hardness against me had me squirming. My hands came up as if to brace myself, uselessly hanging in the air by my shoulders as if I were about to crash head first. My breathing was fast, but not nearly as fast as his. He dipped, sliding his hardness down my leg as he kisses across my breasts, palming my ass as he moved lower... lower. It's a delicious assault and I squeal when he dips his tongue into my belly button while tapping to his knees before me. Oh... my...

I pulsed, my core throbbing with yearning, unbearable. I followed him down and taking him by surprise as I sit on his thigh, his knee between mine. My desires have taken control and I move against him, his hardness rubbing against my leg as I rub against his. I feel up his chest, my hand squeezing his shoulder and his lips capture mine mid-gasp, his tongue diving in. With a firm grip, he pulls the back of my head closer to him, as if trying to fuse our mouths together. His hot breath mingled with mine and I'm lost in naked flesh.

My panties were the last line of defense.

With a rhythm I didn't know I knew, I rock against him, delicious pressure at my core. I could feel myself climbing towards my orgasm and I flushed, shaking when the hand on his shoulder fondled down. His nipple was hard and I paused to pay it a little attention with a light scratch of my nail. He groaned, it resonated inside my throat and my tongue dances with his desperately. My fingers spread, feeling as much as I could of his ripped torso before I delved into his intimate curls to grip his shaft.

His head fell back, our kiss breaking in a wet suction sound and I moan, my own head falling forward into his nook. My lips wouldn't stop, a trail of kisses to his neck left him panting and I start matching my hips to the pumps of my grip at his hardness. Unexpectedly, his hand found my panty line and I flinched, losing no time to ease into it. With a quick dip, he was inside my panties, fingers spreading my juices.

"Ahh... you are always... ready." He reveres in a husky tone. "You feel like silk." I'm lost, his other arm wraps around my back to hold me to him and he stands with me attached to him like a desperate leech. My grip at his member drops as I fumble to hold on to him but I nip at his jawline while his hand still works at my core. He walks with me wrapped around him until my back makes contact with the bed, his body over mine and I gasp, arching with the sensation of his weight on me.

Then he's gone. I flush, feeling abandoned in my whirlwind of passion. "Nooo..." I moan, but his hands find the elastic of my panties and in one swoop they are bunched at my ankles. He's back over me, a leg between my own, his mouth on my breast tongue flicking over the puckered peaks to tease. His fingers find my core and I pet his firm member in adoration before returning to my stroking ministrations... only this time, matching his rhythm.

When he moved up my slit, I moved up his length. When he circled my nub, I used my thumb to rub at his head in the same circle. "My clever little goddess." He cooed against my breast, moving to tongue lash my other peak into sweet agony. With a tentative little thrust, I arched against Meliodas' hand and the resulting jolt of pleasure had me gripping at his shaft. His groan spurred me on and we found a new, more pressing rhythm.

Frenzied and arching, Meliodas adjusted, straining forward. I know he's close, I wasn't far off myself. "Elizabeth..." He groaned, moving so his palm pressed into my core, his fingers searching down. "This is what I wanted to show you." Meliodas uttered huskily and he shook... with anticipation? In one upward thrust, his finger at my core entered me. Simultaneously his hips press against my fist mimicking his digits inside me.

My breath halted. He felt foreign to me. Meliodas' other hand came up to push my hair from my face, staring down at me in wonderment. With a flush, I realized I'd stopped, and so had he. Tentatively I gave a stroke and Meliodas mirrored me, the same as how I had followed him. He was letting me lead and I stared wide-eyed at the realization. I couldn't be in control here! "You're so tight... gripping me." Meliodas hushed in awe.

With one finger pressed inside me to the knuckle, he used his thumb to swirl my nub and his finger curled up. A low moan sounded from my throat and I forgot to be nervous. I repaid the favor, gripping at him and leading our tempo. At first, it was slow, his hand in my hair trembling with the torturous pace.

"You're... inside me," I whisper, in awe that I could feel more than I've already felt. His eyes were half-lidded, a curling half smile twisting and I realized Meliodas was showing me a whole new world. At that moment, sensations ablaze and feeling fuller than I'd ever felt, he was everything. My whole being was so grateful for the pleasure he introduced to me.

His eyes swirled, staring into mine and his face tenses, "looking at me... like that." I increase my pressure on his hardness, knowing he was close. "You'll have it from me." A gasping breath followed. His hot lashes of seed slap across my breasts and belly. Pooling at my hip. I watched his face, looking so tense just to vanish as a wave of pure bliss spreads across his features. With him curling his finger up inside me, paired with his wicked thumb and hot pearly cum dripping from his member, that same wave of bliss takes me under, a breath after him.

"Meliodas!" I moan, holding on to his member and my other hand bunching up the blankets and I'm off the bed, my spine bending forward as if to reach him. My core clenched at his finger, and I gasped realizing I had been yearning, all those times before, to be filled. I tumbled into the pleasure, keeping my eyes on Meliodas as my nerves were burned through with the white-hot light that shined around me.

When I sagged back, reality came trickling into my awareness.

I'd rubbed myself on Meliodas' leg like a puppy! When he was supposed to be undressing me. It had been his turn and- Oh! With apparent reluctance Meliodas withdrew from my core and with eyes still on me, he brought his wet fingers to his lips and his pink tongue lapped at my cream with a salacious grin.

I had the urge to lick him when I'd been undoing his pants but I never thought... his mouth on me... there... or me on him... Wide-eyed and flushed I slowly released my hands to cover my breasts with my forearm and my core with the other. The arm over my slit dipped in his seed on my belly and I bit my lip, unsure.

"Let me clean you up," Meliodas remarks, eyes studying me so intently. "Don't move. I want to watch." He stands, his member hard and bobbing as he leaves our room, walking with a happy hop to his steps. In a few winks, he had a bowl of water and a wash rag, returning. He was still hard, putting the bowl beside the chair by the fire and coming for me.

"Meliodas?' I ask, his hand gripping my ankle, pulling me off the bed and into his arms.

"Hm?" He acknowledged, feeling up my thigh and nuzzling the side of my head. He positions me in the chair, dipping the rag into the water and kneeling before me. He cleans his spill from my tummy, tongue poking out of his mouth over his bottom lip as if he were resisting the urge to lick me clean.

"It's just," I start, his soft ministrations to my breasts made me squirm and my core echoed in pleasure, leftover from moments ago. "You're still hard so are you... satisfied?"

He freezes, looking up at me with surprise. "Satisfied?" He questions, "I'm steeped in it, fulfilled beyond my limit. But seeing your skin glistening with my cum, watching you react to me and my touch-" Meliodas groans in delight, smiling up at me. He motions over his hardness. "My body simply responds to yours. It's such a difficulty, my cock gets hard with the just a hint of your silky flesh." He teases.

I can't help it, I giggle, taking the rag from him.

"When you feel me, I grow warm," I admit, leaning over in the chair to dip the rag in the bowl. "Sometimes, with just a look." I flush, but Meliodas looks thrilled. Even more so when I wring out the rag and clean his hardened member with soft, swipes.

When I deem him clean, he takes the rag and tosses it into the bowl. With a little tug, Meliodas lifted me and in a flash, my hips were bent over his shoulder. "Gah!" I exclaim, spanning my hands across his back to steady myself similar to how he carried me when he had stolen and hidden my panties in his pockets while walking through the streets of my floating city.

With a flip, I'm tossed over his shoulder and the bed bounces. "Hm, look at that." Meliodas coos, slipping in beside me to grab at my breasts. "Watching you come apart, with me inside your sweet pussy..." His eyes closed in remembrance. "I'll cherish that for the rest of my days. I can die happy and knowing it's only ever been me to know your body this way..." Meliodas' eyes pinch closed and a perverted grin spread slowly.

"What more can we do?" I hush, curious where else he could lead us. Meliodas's eyes twinkle in response.

"Hm, does my girl has a lusty side?" He smirks, pulling me closer so our naked bodies were touching in multiple points. I flush. "I want to preserve every one of your new discoveries," Meliodas says in reverence. He pauses, takes a breath before continuing.

"If I could capture these moments, to relive them whenever I pleased... Hmmm." His nose nuzzles against my chest, as I wiggled, adjusting to place my arm around him. "Elizabeth," Meliodas' eyes were deep and kind. "I want to cherish you the way you should be."

My heart fills with tenderness and I relax into his embrace. "So you don't mind having to teach me?"

"Mmm. It's my pleasure." Meliodas meant it and I felt reassured that Meliodas didn't feel like my inexperience hindered us. It seemed to do the opposite, to excite him. "Do the goddesses not tell you about your own body?"

I flush, uncomfortable. "They do but I didn't know about the things you've shown me." I confess, "There must be endless possibilities." I whisper, thinking of him licking his fingers clean and about me wanting to taste his seed straight from the source.

Meliodas groans, his hardness pressing into my side and I shiver. "When you think of something, anything, tell me. I will make it good for you." His voice is thick, throaty and paired with his hardness against me, I shift my hips as my core grows slicker. Shaking off my shyness, I maneuver to kiss him, soft and he returns the gentleness. Neither of us deepens our touches and I feel the emotions between us.

"I'll follow wherever you lead, Meliodas." I whisper, "but, I'm not sure if I'm ready to couple. My heart races just thinking about it." My face grows hot but Meliodas' softens while his hardness rubs against me again as if he couldn't help himself.

"You tell me when. I'll follow wherever you lead." He repeats my words and we grin at one another as if we shared a secret. A statement was being made between us and the more I tried to focus on it, the blurrier it got in my mind.

Naked and wrapped around one another, legs entangled and hands gently caressing, we talked, laughed and shared our memories with one another.


	24. Power

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter, thank you.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Power

Mr. Millian had gathered a handful of copper coins and a few seeds. He offered them to me, trying to pay me for the third day in a row. I refused it every time and now is no different. "I help because I want to, please keep it." I begged, using my hand to close his fingers over his offering. "Just send a messenger if you need me," I amend, motioning to the fuller, playing children out front.

I felt good about what I'd done here, the sick house was almost empty. Just the old man that refused my services and the little white-haired girl who still had a fever but is on the mend. Her mother hadn't left her side, wrapped in cloth even in the warm sick house. Delphine had regained consciousness today, eating some broth and growing stronger.

The fields were growing, the sick house in recovery and they knew where to find me. For the first evening, I didn't have anything to do. Mina would probably accept some help but she'd already told me things were done in advance with how much extra time I've put in with her.

I knew what I wanted to do. The idea had taken root in Megadozer that fighting didn't mean killing. Meliodas had offered to teach me weeks ago when we'd started meeting at the theater and with him already training the newest recruits it couldn't be much hassle to add me to the mix. Besides, he is the most skilled fighter I knew and he would never hurt me. I took to the skies, careful to keep my dress in place over my behind. I'd worn the one we'd bought in the market district, the swoop neck had made me uncomfortable at first but I did like how free I felt.

My movements were unhindered.

Pip had taken Estarossa today. I missed the fur-ball. He was getting bigger and bigger as the weeks passed and Meliodas thought he might have some wolf in him. I didn't see it. He was too round but Meliodas seemed proud about it so I never disagreed out loud.

I flew to the training ground, looking for Meliodas until I spot him, there. For a moment, my breath was stolen. I haven't seen him like this since I first met him on the battlefield. Demon mark swirled on his head, darkness seeping from him and his face cold and impassive. I wasn't afraid, no, it was more like his power automatically triggered my internal warnings that danger was about. With a steadying breath, the warning bells calmed and being near him felt comforting.

The troops I pass ranged from misshapen hulk demons to early teenage looking kids paired off in the round, cut out pits. Obviously, they must be old enough to fight but I could see what Meliodas had described to me so many times. Some of the pairs stopped their fight to stare, sneer and one white-haired man-boy called out "Lady Elizabeth!" but got slammed in the head by a monstrous, literally two-faced demon who gave a glare in my general direction. Ouch.

I flew on, ignoring them. Meliodas turned from his task, grinning at me as I dropped down to take the hand at his side. The other hand of his delved directly for my chest, the cleavage there was thoroughly felt before he greeted me with a smiling kiss.

"I approve, Elizabeth. Wear this one all the time." He said that about any dress I had that showed even a little skin. His head dips to stick his face there but I swat at him, halting him and his smile widens. A little hand action was fine, I still wasn't sure if that was really the way demons declared themselves to one another, but if he started nuzzling or sucking on me... no.

"She struck Captain Meliodas." A demon in the pit before us hushed, scandalized. I turned in that direction and a thin dark haired demon displayed utter alarm and looked at me as if I just signed my own death sentence.

"And I'll do it again if he doesn't behave." I chide, smirking at Meliodas as I straighten my dress and take his hand again. "I have a request." My tone faded softly as I get to the end of my words while addressing Meliodas.

"Anything." he answers, dark eyes flashing green for me.

"You don't know what it is yet." I complain and he shrugs, turning back to his troops to shout "the lot of you will feel my wrath if you keep staring at my girl!" When Meliodas looks back to me, his features relaxed again. The fighting started around us, pained grunts and wooden weapons shattering.

"What do you want?" He inquires, touching my hair.

"I want to learn to fight," I profess, holding his gaze so he knew I was serious. The green fades from his orbs and his blonde brows meet in the middle, concerned.

"What changed your mind?" He asked, "When I offered you refused." I can't maintain our eye contact and I look away toward the sleeping grey demon with the flower shaped stone face in the far distance. It looked tiny from here, but I knew otherwise. How could I put this into words?

"I... didn't have someone to fight for... before," I whisper, looking up through my bangs at him and in a complete reversal, all the green flooded into his orbs and shining emeralds grew wide. I smile and he returns it.

"Tonight, I've something to show you." Instantly my tummy spreads warm and I flush, looking at him with heated alarm. His smile turns wicked, could he tell? His hand roamed my behind and I think he could!

I stayed out of the way when opponents changed not wanting to disturb anyone. Mostly, I just watched Meliodas move, occasionally pacing aimlessly around and wishing there was something I could do to help but things were covered here. Meliodas would call me over from time to time, whispering to me things that the fighters were doing, teaching me by having me watch. If Meliodas turned his back, some of the demons would flare up their darkness or leak miasma when they hadn't before. It was pretty clear they didn't like me being here.

For me, it was a non-issue, it didn't matter. Meliodas had dealt with plenty from the goddesses to sit with me when the treaty was being written. Besides, it took more than a few healings for people to get over generations of hate. In the end, the new recruits scattered after their fights and it was Meliodas alone with me again.

We walked back, slowly. I was happy to enjoy the stars with him. Thinking back to our night on top of Megadozer. I felt more hopeful about our clans than I ever did back then. I had more determination to keep this, what was between us, than ever before. What I had now is precious to me.

At the castle, we head to the stairs that lead underground, walking together but with him leading marginally ahead. Mina wasn't allowed down here, so I'd never been. "Is this going to be a creepy, torture chamber dungeon?" I inquire, taking Meliodas' hand when he opens the door and its dark, dank and eerie.

"No torture chamber." He informs, leading me down the smooth stone stairs and I follow, trusting him but thinking of Pix and her warning about how 'bad' it gets being with Meliodas. Instead of fear, a sliver of anticipation shot through me and I wondered what he was going to show me, what else my body is capable of. At the bottom, we landed in a hall that went perpendicular to the stairs, block gray stones and fire lit sconces along the walls. We went left but he said "Over that way is the dungeon. Don't go there." He'd never given me an order before, or a restriction and I frowned, wondering if they did torture their captured.

The hall ended, an open door on the side and inside was a massive open room obviously used for training. It was clearly different than what the demon army used to train, this is for the princes with Chandler and Cusack. Real weapons were mounted on the walls, lines were etched on the floor as if to indicate something and in the center was a round disk about the size of a plate, a cube beside it.

That little thing could fit in my palm. I could sense that it was magical and I grew nervous. Or, was my magic responding to it? Something fizzled in my tummy, that's all I knew for sure.

Meliodas let me look, when I studied the rooms stone walls, ornate weaponry and creepy statues, I turned back to him to find him staring at me. I flushed, smiling softly. He walked over to the cube and bent to pick it up.

"Six sides, for six different, let's say, simulations." He starts. "Whichever you want, place it facing up on the disk and the perfect cube will activate, along with a golem." Like what the Giants could do? "Saying 'I forfeit' or being defeated will deactivate the golem, the perfect cube falls when you pull this cube out of its place," Meliodas explains the six sides, but selecting for me the golem that mirrors my own power. "Each golem can learn in a session and they can do serious damage but can't kill."

With his hand over mine, he shows me which side I should start with, and positions it over the indentation in the plate at our feet. "Once this drops in, be ready." He warns, stepping back and I frown.

"I've never been in a fight before," I tell him just as I put the cube in and magic erupts around us, a shiny transparent cube formed with walls, a floor and a ceiling overhead. The cube shook. Was this normal? I felt magic rise but nothing happened.

Confused, I turned to Meliodas but he was looking around the cube in curiosity. Already dropped in his fighting stance.

"Blade!" Meliodas commands, barely glancing at me and I stand at attention, magically pulling forth a light sword to cover my arm. Opposite me, forming a few feet from the disk stood a crude cut, faceless me, but in stone form. Two light swords over her arms. Realization struck when he said mirroring my power, he meant what's inside not what I did. To match her, I pulled a second one over my other arm and dropped into a stance Tins had demonstrated so many times.

I hadn't continued the skills he'd shown me and I felt like I'd forgotten everything.

In a blink, the golem was gone and I tense, barely moving in time to block the double hit on my right. Woah. She's faster than me. With another slam, I skidded back a few feet and met her blows with mine. There were no openings for me to be offensive. She shot back, flying up and I bolted forward, taking my first shot.

Blocked.

Golem me is aggressive and powerful. Her arks were solid, far more than my own. Meliodas stepped in twice, once to cancel the golems magic with his darkness before it exploded my leg and once to throw her off my back when she'd managed to get me at a disadvantage. He'd firmly told me "focus, never let an opponent at your back! Your wings are a target," when I'd gotten myself into such a position.

"Root your stance!" Meliodas would call out whenever I'd find myself knocked on the ground. After the fifth one, I snapped back "I'm a flyer!"

He laughed and I lost focus long enough to be slammed in the chest, Meliodas catching me before I hit the back wall. "Then fly." He directed, simply. She was pissing me off and I used Meliodas to fling myself at her, he was solid, unmoving but so was the golem. We collided and it was me that went flapping to the side, blocking another blade as the golem took advantage of my fumble, slamming me from above.

We went round and around. I was panting, sweating and it felt like it was a hundred degrees in here. Our ratio was about thirty hits to one and I was losing, hard. I ark-ed, throwing the ball and attempting to use her deflection against her to try and match her speed, spinning my blades to hit her. She doesn't take the bait, letting the ark explode rather than funnel the magic and we both take the blast. The cube disappears, the golem blinking out of existence mid-air and Meliodas grabs me, putting me on my feet.

"I had more in me." I fume, rolling my shoulders back.

"Yeah, but you're still getting your ass handed to you." He explains, "and I want to be the one handling that ass." Meliodas feels me over and I just hold on, catching my breath. "I want to show you something." Meliodas adjusts my body, I know he's serious as he doesn't take any liberties. He creates black purple blades that match my white ones and rather than stand to face me as if we were to spare, he stands beside me, as if we were going to face an enemy together.

I copy his movements. When I need correcting, he does so. He takes his time with me, patient and I feel more confident to go another round but Meliodas promises we can tomorrow. "I need to press your slick body against mine." He admits, and I flush, noticing his bulging hardness as he stands from his crouched stance.

On our way up to our rooms, I review what I'd done wrong. "Meliodas..." My voice is tentative, he looks over at me, "That golem, it can only do what I'm capable of?" I know he already told me but his face softens.

"You are capable of everything that golem did." He agrees. "Your power is amazing, but you've only truly accessed it unconsciously outside of healing. We'll work to hone it."

"I want to move that fast." I tell him, "I will run drills, or, well, fly." I correct, standing a little taller when he beams at me with something like soft pride.

My beaten self-esteem recovered, my mood improved as Meliodas feels my behind when he opens our suite door but it instantly crashes when I spot what's outside our living areas window. That stupid squawk bird. I go to him, opening the window and he flies in. He flaps, annoyingly, and I take the note from his leg. It wasn't really the bird's fault, he was just a reminder that I was here to betray these people, not to help them.

Meliodas brought over a bowl of water for the bird as I read the short note. I could hear Ludociel's high and mighty voice in the slanted letters. 'Give me something useful, Elizabeth.' I showed Meliodas and he rerolled it, tossing it over his shoulder with little thought.

"I have something useful for you," Meliodas said, dire. "It's in our bedroom, but I can only tell you when you're naked, your hot core gripping at my fingers." He wiggled them and I grow hot, but I let him take my hand to pull me toward the door.

"You're... a great teacher, Meliodas," I whisper and his green eyes flash with deviant pleasure when he looks back at me, full of promise. Dark thrills shoot through my core and I smirk back, excited. He's awakened a whole new side to me, why not embrace it?

After that night, we were rarely apart. We'd dress together when it was time to run drills, I'd join the new recruits for endurance but he never paired me to fight with anyone. Instead, he'd take me around, so I could watch the different moves. Meliodas didn't make it a big deal I was there, nor point things out to me specifically but that's what he was doing. Correcting his army while showing me.

Meliodas took command very well. The demons improved under his tutelage and here I saw something that I hadn't before with any other group of demon I'd come across, in regards to how they interacted with Meliodas. They joked with one another. A demon that looked a little younger than Meliodas with sunken eyes and brown hair actually challenged him "you got me in the pit, but I have you at the tavern. You and me, I can outdrink you any night." Meliodas laughed and grabbed him around the neck to rubbed his knuckles in the kid's hair before tossing him back into his fighting pit with ease.

After a while, some of the demons included me in the jokes. Joining them for their drills and suffering under the sun together bought some respect from them. I'd gotten a few kinds of compliments, like 'You're not just a soft little lady after all' and 'Who knew a skinny little fowl had guts'. I even knew a few by name, but the others were slow to warm or didn't bother with me.

I suppose being ignored was better than being openly aggressive. Things had improved since the beginning. Groder, the white-haired boy even gave me updates on his sister, who had recovered from her fever. I knew he liked me as he always made a point to run just below my flying when we did our laps. Sometimes we raced to push ourselves.

Covered in sweat, Meliodas called for the sparing to begin, coming over to feel up my damp thighs. "You have legs I'd kill for." He murmurs "Hm, imagine them wrapped around my shoulders with my mouth at your pretty, pink pussy" his soft whisper is at my ear and I flush, instantly freezing in shock while my core pools from the thought. "I bet your body is weeping for me. Tell me when." He soothed, pulling away with a winning smile before going to command his fighters.

For a long while I stood there processing what he said. He liked to pull the rug out from under me. Of course, the thought had crossed my mind a time or two, especially when he would breathe on me while working an orgasm from my core. We could time them now, the two of us familiar with the body of the other. Sleeping naked was normal, so was waking up to soft touches that grew frantic. We were both being glutted with skin, but he was waiting for me to take us to the next level.

And he just told me what the next one would be. Mouths. Hot, wet, tongues. Another thing he needed to teach me. When I came to grips with the next clear path of my sexual awakening, I couldn't focus on the commands Meliodas shouted to his underlings. With a visible shake, I got a better handle on myself.

When the pairs started to finish their matches, some vowing to 'beat you next time' or unable to move from their injuries. A loud boom of power sounded behind me and I flew that way, a few pits to my left. A small dwarf looking lady hoped out of the pit and sneered at me. Blood covered her and she grinned at another of her comrades as she strutted away.

Inside the pit was a purple, bloodied beast. Both of these demons had been around but we'd never spoken before. I dropped down, he would live, but his recovery would be harrowing. Darkness leaked out and the chunks of purple scattered about the pit attached to it, then pulled to his body, slowly. His darkness sealing his limbs back in place.

"You're not frightened?" The wounded demon asked, the voice giving her away as a woman. High pitched but hurting.

"Of course not," I tell her, gliding toward her, honestly not afraid. I'd been around these demons for a while now. Besides, Meliodas was literally a blink away. "The darkness, it doesn't heal the damage, can I?" I offer, holding up my hands. The mound over her shoulders dips forward, the face there purple and tense. As soon as I got consent I healed her, touching her shoulder where the two arms branched out and I could tell she had used her darkness to reassemble herself a few times.

When I finished, I touched down to help pull her up, straining to lift her. She stands, around double my size and I appreciate the dwarf woman's strength all the more, realizing she must be powerful and brave to take this girl down. "I'm Elizabeth," I say.

"Yeah, I know." Her arm extracts from my hands, she steps back, her legs muscled and solid. I flushed, knowing that but I had been trying to be polite as we hadn't been introduced. "I'm Yuri. Thanks." With a few brushes at her tattered clothes, she hops out of the pit, yelling away from me "Nanat! This is why I'm the only one that will fight you, you crazy demon bitch."

Flying up, I watched Yuri catch up with the dwarf-shaped woman... apparently named Nanat? With a smile, I found my way back to Meliodas. He didn't look happy, shoulders tense but I lead him home when the last of the fighters were heading out. Eyes dark and shadowed from his hair, shoulders tense. I squeeze his hand and his fingers interlace with mine, easing his anger some.

We head to the basement for our usual visit to the cube and I stretch, stroking my magic to get my power flowing in preparation. I still lose, but the hits ratio is down to about ten to one, so a slower ass kicking but still a thorough one.

"I want to try something new tonight," Meliodas starts, voice concealing heavy emotions, still bothered by something and I grin slow, knowing how to turn him around.

"Mouths, right?" I smirk, his darkness fades and he lights up with laughter. "I want to try something before that though," I tell him and he's curious, watching me as I walk to the plate. As I flip it to the correct side, I flush while telling him "I had a dream about us in that big bath of yours but we need to work for our pleasure."

As I slip the cube into its home on the plate, the perfect cube springs up around us, the magic alerts me and there is a stone, faceless me. Before my blades are fully formed a tendril of darkness, moving in an arch like a whip snaps at my golems shoulder. I look back, Meliodas had his hands up behind his neck, looking like a perfect picture of nonchalance. In my peripheral vision the golem shoots past me, blades extended as she pounces at Meliodas, who didn't raise a hand to defend himself.

No.

With speed I didn't know I had, I shot forward, as the golem is in motion to collide inches from his chest with her light blade descending down I attack her side with enough force for her to slam past Meliodas' shoulder. His hair ruffles from the wind and I look him over as the golem's stone body booms against the magic cube.

"What are you doing?!" I demand, relieved the other me hadn't harmed him but furious he pulled this stunt.

"Testing a theory." He quips, smiling at me like he knew something I didn't.

My golem went after Meliodas, even with me fighting her, blocking her blows and send her crashing away with an ark. She'd attempt to cut me out of her way but at every opportunity, she went for Meliodas. He had attacked first so she was his main target. Meliodas laughed as the Golem lobbed an ark at him, I used my own burning blades to boost my kick off for an interception.

With a spin, mid-air, I morphed her ark into mine and threw it at her stupid blank face. She slammed into the ground, her momentum used against her and I dropped in front of Meliodas, protective. "Oh." I stood up straight having a great idea. With her down I used that time to mentally push my blades off my arms and slowly the light receded to my wrist, to my hands until I spun the light into orbs floating in my palms. It was like I was holding the blade, rather than the blade be a part of me.

"Clever girl." Meliodas praises and when the golem charges again, I let my blades fly, the pair of them crossing with an explosion at her chest. Behind me I hear him let out a shocked 'huh' before he says, "I've never seen that before."

New blades spark like a flame from the orbs in my palms and I let them barrage from me. I'm testing the limits, as this was the time to do it. Could I spark an arc in there? The golem was struggling to get up, cracked and crumbling. I crossed my blades, charging them to the max before shooting them while morphing my palm orbs to funnel it in an ark, one with as much power as I could punch. The trio was a perfect, ear-shattering implosion, the golem decimated before the powers explosion ripped inside the cube... which we were in. Trapped.

"Oh." I brace myself, but in a blink, Meliodas is over me, my back to the floor with his arms over my head and shoulders to press me against him as the white light splinters into thousands of shards. It's blinding, the force of magic pressing Meliodas against me and I feel his muscles straining, fighting against it so as not to crush me.

"Gaaahhh!" He howls in agony, his clothing shredding upward in burning flakes of cloth and it seems endless, the power bouncing off the cube to crash over us again and again, as it didn't have a place to disperse. A bathtub of trapped waves. I reached around him, hands up to channel it, trying to grab at any thread to pull it back but it's so volatile. There is no long thread, but slivers of energy. The shredded pieces were too shattered to retrieve. I still try, my clothes burning away at the sides and edges with my arms out.

For a demon this would be... excruciating.

Failing to control my own power, I give up, wrapping my arms around Meliodas' ruined, bleeding back. His flesh was burning away. With tears springing to my eyes, I heal him. A new glow adding to the light and I feel my own external power eating away at the only protection I could offer Meliodas. A healing buffer between us and the overwhelming power.

"I'm sorry!" I sob, tears falling but he's mending while I funnel more power into my healing as the explosion chips away at it. Hopefully, it faded before the energy I had left did. "I didn't want you to get hurt and I ended up being the one that hurt you. Your skin is gone." I choke, feeling at his back as it knitted up under my ministrations.

"You're so strong, Elizabeth." He mutters, sounding impressed and a little thrilled. His arms slide out from under me, palms moving on either side of my head as he looks down at me. The force was fading as he only strained a bit to move. "You needed the right motivation."

"P-Please, don't move too far." I break down, pulling him a little closer to me so the power that kept chomping chunks out of my healing didn't reach him.

"Don't cry." My chest clenches tight as he moves to rest on his elbows above me as his knuckles brush at my cheeks. "I've suffered must worse and seeing you in all your glory, that was brilliant." He lets out a low hiss, like a whistle of appreciation. "Your power would have leveled this castle, we'd be in a crater without this perfect cube."

The last of the shattered light faded and I dropped my healing glow, hands sagging to the floor as I try to attempt to reign in my ragged breaths. I am tapped. My tears stop but my chest still squeezed, feeling as if I failed at protecting him when that had been the obvious objective of his test. Meliodas sat up, legs on either side of my hips as he shucked the strips of cloth that hung from his shoulders and hips. Naked, he looked me over.

"Oh, how horrible." Meliodas deadpans, sarcastic. "Your dress is unsalvageable." With a little tug the last threads at my shoulder snap and he tosses half of my dress off to the side, the other half trapped under my weight. "With how I feel right now, I could worship and work your lithe body for hours..." He trails the back of his hands down my form.

My head felt light, my chest loosening. With a little maneuvering, he stood and scooped me up in a princess hold, my head on his shoulder. "I think you need to sleep." He whispered. My dangling arm reached up to loop around his neck and hung there before I answered. "I'm sorry... I wanted to save you."

"You did." He promised and I hear something in his voice. A double meaning? It must be something sexual, he likes double entendres. "You've saved me." He must toe the cube from the plate as the perfect cube falls around us after he walks over it. Before we exit, his dark purple tendrils snake over me in long strips to cover my naked bits.

My eyes close for a long moment and I smile. If I can get myself under control I did have a lot of power. "I shot my blades," I whisper while looking at him, my emotions raw from all the adrenaline as I felt a little giddy now that the danger passed. He grinned down at me, sharing in my success with dazzling emerald eyes. Meliodas hops up the steps and I giggle, his eyebrows raise with humor at each tickle bump.

"Power drunk, huh? That happens, especially at first. Chandler told me it's from the imbalance, without the magic that's usually coursing through you. It takes time to get used to." Meliodas explained, reaching the main floor of the castle and heading toward our rooms. "Sleep, Elizabeth. I have you."

"You have me," I confirm, soft and his steps pause, his cheek moves to softly brush against my hair, my head heavy on his shoulder before his pace resumes. I'm falling into sleep when he stops moving and my eyes open to look around with a little tilt of my head. Chandler is here, white hair splayed around his face in a full circle. His eyes practically blown to twice their regular size then settle on a smug approval.

"You're naked?" He stated slightly questioning, his thinner eyebrow arching up high. Meliodas' darkness spreads thicker over my body, the bands licking across my flesh.

"We're always naked together," I answer, sounding drowsy and wispy, but truthful. "He shows me what my body is capable of." I'm not sure why but Meliodas throws his head back and laughs while Chandler's mouth twists in relieved satisfaction. The darkness over me continues its little flicks and it tickles a little.

"I'm glad to see you're back to working your women to exhaustion," Chandler notes, sounding every bit the lecherous old man. "When you're done with this one, do let us know."

Even in my haze, I flush hot, my arm around Meliodas gripping at his neck as I tuck my face into him to hide. His joyous laughter halts mid chuckle. His hold on me tightens, pulling me closer to help with my efforts. I wanted to fold up inside him, to shrink down to be as small as I felt. How many others? Why did I feel unsure of myself after one snide remark from Chandler?

He sounded so sure Meliodas would leave me.

"Go soak in the pits while you wait and see which comes first, your death or me ever allowing Elizabeth to be taken from me." Meliodas' voice is low and ominous, the darkness gripping around me leaking as if liquid, dripping new ribbons, more spilling from him and over me as if he were a bubbling spring. I flushed deeper, not having to look to know his demon mark had appeared again, I could taste his power in the air.

Chandler groans, as if under great pressure. With a little turn, under Meliodas' chin, I spotted the old man on his knees. "You know I dote upon you, young master. The power of your commandment means nothing." He explains and I frowned, thinking it must be a blessing and a burden to hold the commandment of love.

Meliodas couldn't fool himself. Those around him all hated him, even a little bit and he would know it. Perhaps they hated for a simple reason, having more power, being next in line for demon king or any other reason, but knowing someone you loved hated you? My eyes welled with tears and I tucked closer to Meliodas, pressing my chest to his and feeling him up to wrap my other arm around his neck to hold him in my embrace. I didn't hate him one bit and I hoped that eased his years of loneliness.

Chandler is appalled, "The girl isn't affected?!" Meliodas stalks forward, toward Chandler and as he moves Chandler groans with effort. I don't dare look.

"She's never, not from the first moment, been affected. Do you have any idea what that means to me?" Meliodas condemned, speaking to Chandler as if he of all people should understand. Is that why he liked me? I had been a stranger. Had I been the first person that didn't hate him? He moves us with heavy, firm steps. We pass the man and from my position, I could see him over Meliodas' shoulder, pressed to the ground under a strong, invisible force.

"It could be immunity, not what you've deluded yourself into believing." Chandler's sneering voice responded but Meliodas doesn't look back nor stop in his approach to his rooms. The only reaction he had was the darkness coating me stilled, the dripping froze in place as if the magic iced over. "Free yourself from that girl, Young Master!" The old man calls out after us and the tears fall from my eyes.

I held as tight as I could to Meliodas, hoping that by sheer force of will I could keep us together. I think he had the same thought as his still darkness along with his arms squeeze me tighter against his chest.

We would make it, right? Or were we diving head first into despair? I wiped at my face, finding calmness in me as I realized... It didn't matter, I'd still jump.


	25. Can't Stand The Heat

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Twenty-Five: Can't Stand The Heat

Sweat coated me like a second skin. My endurance had been peaked, my speed amazing but today I was back of the pack. Demons jeered at me, most of them in an attempt to pull some fight out of me. They were bolder with Meliodas gone. He'd set us to our drills and left with a promise to be back when we were finished.

It'd been two days since my magic explosion in the cube and my power is still erratic. So, we hadn't been back, although he said we could start it back up when I am back to myself. I had insisted I could still train with the others, yet it seemed Meliodas had been right. Perhaps I shouldn't be here.

Meliodas had taken it easy with me, even helping me with a new report to Ludociel by sketching outlines of the city and some parts of the castle. I'd refused to write about the power structure here but did agree to give the Ten Commandments names. Meliodas said it would buy us more time and that it wasn't a betrayal.

Is that what is weighing me down, or did my magic have more to do with my stamina than I thought? The others were finished when I'd reached them. I'd done half my laps on foot and the other half by wings. I glided to a stop, panting as I shrugged to some of those I considered friends when they looked at me with concern. Or, I guess I couldn't truly tell with Yuri as her 'head' didn't show many emotions- she kind of always looked like she was about to eat you.

Without much subtly, I reinvigorated myself and the sweat misted away.

"No fair." Groder nudged me from the side, his white hair slick with sweat, matted to the side of his face. I shrugged, grinning.

Meliodas appeared on top of the wall, looking down at us. He spotted me and jumped down from the wall, the impact drawing everyone's focus and to my surprise, he had the cube and plate in opposite hands. He hadn't told me the troops were starting this today. I flushed, thinking he might have given up on training me. In his deep, commanding voice that always got me flustered, he explained how to use the cube and what it does.

"I'll demonstrate with Elizabeth, come here." He calls me out and I grow flush, slowly walking forward. Together, we walk farther away still, to a spot in the packed soil that looked about the size of the perfect cube when it's erect. He whispers, chin at my shoulder to say "We're going to face both our golems together, attack mine and I'll attack yours when they first appear to get the most out of this. It will be intense but I promise you're ready." When I gave him a wide-eyed look he smiled, reassuringly. "Worse case, I'll keep you safe."

Did we have to do this in front of everyone? I was about to ask if I could sit this out but then I remembered my golem was only as strong as I am, so she'd be feeling this depletion too. He held up the cube, stating what I already knew.

"You all will start with this side of the cube." The symbol is of two stick figures mirrored with a line between them. "Pay attention, everyone will be entering in pairs." The troops grumbled and Meliodas snapped at them. "It's because when you mess up no one will be able to enter the cube to deactivate it until you regain consciousness, so your partner can still pull this cube free." Oh, that's why Meliodas always entered with me? It wasn't to save my ass? Although he still did. Meliodas looked to me, calling to the group "We'll be fighting both our own golems but the lot of you will fight one on one."

Some groaned in anticipatory pain but most just looked curious. With a long look over me, he showed me the side we'd be activating. A symbol of two stick figures, arrowed to opposite stick figures, still looking like a child's drawing. He didn't say a word but I knew he was telling me to be ready, to attack his golem. I fall into my stance beside him as he puts the plate on the ground and slides the cube into its place.

The transparent magic hexahedron forms around us and the demon troops move to the edges, each one getting a front row seat to what was about to happen. My nerves fired but so did my adrenaline. I've done this before and with Meliodas being the target of my golem, I'd beat the bitch back no problem.

We were scanned, Meliodas rooting at my side, a step farther forward then I am. The golems appeared and with a solid zapping ark, I hit the blank-faced stone Meliodas. Beside me, Meliodas' darkness snaps at the golem me. The pair of them jolted into action, I focused on my own self, rushing forward to intercept her as Meliodas had already crashed with his golem, much faster than the two me's

Even on my best day, I am slow in comparison. Meliodas' speed is his greatest advantage, his strength a close second.

My golem was sparking with me. Her blades flickering and I focused on bashing her, keeping her from Meliodas. She made a break for him and I tackled her from behind, using my ark to smash her head into the ground. With a twist, I was at Meliodas' back, reminding me of all the times after my fights that we'd go over the positions in sync.

With the other me struggling to stand I see Meliodas rush forward, fist extended to slam into his golem, who was coming for me. I see an opening, sending an ark at the stone golem to propel him into my partners fist. The golem cracked, but in the mayhem my golem had risen, rushing toward Meliodas. I used my magic to move faster, landing on her back like a crazed monkey, my feet on her spine as I grab her wing with one hand and use my other to cut my blade through the base of her wing. I just de-winged my other self, making her lopsided.

With a howl I threw her stone wing away, it crashed to the side of the cube but her fist gripped my ankle and she tossed me hard into the side of the stone Meliodas. I knew the real Meliodas is on the other side as his golems rock arm secures around my neck and I struggle, my blades impacting but not damaging near enough. I can't breathe and my golem runs past, fast on her feet toward Meliodas.

I don't see what happens but a moment later stones and pebbles ricocheted all around us, my golem obliterated. With Meliodas at a safe distance, my arms move behind my back and I crossed my blades, focusing a small ark to hit the sparking stream. It causes me and the stone golem to explode apart in a huge boom of white light. I braced for impact, knowing I'd crush a lot of bones when I hit the cube at this velocity, my wings spread wide for resistance.

Strong arms spun me, turning the force into motion until dizzily, the flesh Meliodas and I stopped spinning. Meliodas caught me? He had the strength to fight off that mass of momentum. He released me, standing before me again and I mirrored him at his side as his golem began rising again, cracked and missing the arm he had around my neck just moments ago. The magic behind me lapped back, just like before, water trapped in a container only this time its low, only a few inches of power.

I looked over my partner, Meliodas must have been hit with my magic too as his flesh is burnt but not seared away like my first experiment with this attack. I am getting better at it. Using the time we had, I reached for his skin, zapping him with a full heal before forming my orb blades again to fire from afar.

"No." Meliodas hushes, the magic fizzling noisily around us, "these demons may end up as your enemy, keep your new skills an advantage." I flush, thinking he was putting me before his troops. I let the blades form to my wrists and arms to give them max aggressive power. After the mini atomic blast, healing Meliodas and being low on power to begin with I was nearing the end of my magic. I'd fight with Meliodas, no matter how I felt or how weak I've become.

With a blink, the two clashed and even at a disadvantage without my firing blades, I stayed at Meliodas' back, ark-ing pieces off the golem. His foot, his side, and half his head was chipped away. With a lucky punch, the golem hooked Meliodas and I rooted as he impacted at my back. We only skidded a few feet as I focused the energy on my stance, just like he'd taught me.

My wings were spread wide to accept him, slowing our momentum and the golem took advantage, grabbing at my wing. I braced for the snap but just as his stone fingers had made contact, they were gone. Darkness seeped, tendrils exploded like tentacles swirling in the cube and then, the golem exploded too. I watched, wide-eyed, my blades fading, as Meliodas's skin turned dark, the magic seeping from his very being and he is someone else for a moment.

Cheers sounded around us and I flushed, remembering we were surrounded by our unit. I rushed to Meliodas' side as he still had his fist in the crater of earth, his knuckles meeting the bottom of the cube. He's leaking darkness. "Is that... really you, Meliodas?" I whisper under the roar of our audience, his messy hair shielding his face from view.

He stands and I mirror him. When he finally grins at me, I rush into him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. Neither of us had many injuries and I laughed, thinking the odds of that being astronomically low.

"We're good together!" I tell him and he scoffs softly, telling me "Of course we are."

When I release him, he takes my hand to guide me with him to find the plate. We slope down with the contours of the crater he made to see it anchored to the bottom of the perfect cube. Letting go, he removed it, turning it to the single mirrored image on top but as the magic barrier fell around us, our unit rushed us. I expected them to go to Meliodas as he'd been the star of the show, having destroyed both golems, but they didn't.

Hands reached, patting me and Yuri's big arm wrapped around my shoulder while her knuckle rubbed at the top of my head. "You are a secret badass!" someone shouted, "You faced off with Meliodas' double!" and "That magic attack would have blown us miles away!" Showing them what I could do earned their respect? I didn't think I was that impressive...

Meliodas moved through the crowd, tossing them away with any body part he could grip, over his shoulder to get to me. Some cried out in alarm, others chuckled as they soared a few feet away. Amid the bodies and with laughter, the unit stepped away from me. I was in a state of pleased shock, but looking over Meliodas I could see he was truly back to himself in spite of his black eyes glinting at me.

He ordered them around, the first pair he picked was Yuri and Nanat. Nanat was the fiercest fighter among the troops and it was a good start, she had the highest likelihood of defeating herself. The troops gathered around to watch but Meliodas took my waist and jumped us to the top of the formed perfect cube. I sat, looking down with him beside me. It started, I winced as Nanat took hit after hit, getting her bearings for this. My first time had been just as bad.

Meliodas corrected her, distracting her on more than one occasion. She slips several times at the sound of his commanding voice. "The battlefield isn't a simulation, distractions are everywhere!" he bellowed and when Nanat finally got her groove, she met her double with more and more blows but taking twice what she gave. She's tough, which meant so was her golem.

"You rooted your stance," Meliodas muttered and I looked up to see him beaming with delight. "I could tell your golem wasn't at full strength, which means you are still recovering." With a weary, apologetic smile I shrug, sitting on my ankles and putting my hands on my knees before him. "Can you heal yourself?" Meliodas reaches forward to touch my tender neck that his golem had grabbed.

"Yeah." I answer, "but it means more if I suffer." I try to tell him with my expression that fighting together, with him, was worth the pain. He smiles, head tilting to the side and green easing with warmth. "Thank you for training me," I tell him, grateful with how far I've come. Even what I'd learned from the giants has come together for me.

Everyone gets a turn, each pair seeming to fall sooner than the last. Not a single demon made it out having destroyed their golem, just like my first time. I cheered, reassured and winced with the rest of them. After training, when Meliodas dismissed them we were getting ready to go when the group of them called out to us.

"Come on Captain, Elizabeth- Let's go to Old Man Millers!" One whined and another picked up where the other left off, "We've fought together, now we drink together!" Meliodas looked concerned to me but I smiled.

"You did say I should try that Cinnamon mead," I smirk and a slow grin spreads. We joined our unit, them already excited as we noisily went through the city streets. Yuri took me under her arm and Meliodas was jumped from behind by Hoy. They fake wrestled and I smiled watching them as Yuri recounted her fight, having come out pretty damaged.

At Old Man Millers, we entered the tavern in a rush of bodies. There's a few scattered patrons but with all of us, the open room filled with round wooden tables, its suddenly at max capacity. I recognized the bartender, a tall man with gray hair, mouth long across his face with sharp teeth and too many eyes. He'd spoken to Meliodas a while ago as if they were friends, while I'd been sitting on Meliodas' head. I grew hot and a hand grabbed my behind.

"Gah!" I spin, spotting Meliodas and he uses the hand on my ass to steer me straight to... Old Man Miller? Is that his name or the name of the Tavern? With a flourish he orders us two of the Cinnamon meads and the man grins, wasting no time to get them together. The mugs are placed before us as he gives a little bow and moves to another of our comrades listing off drink orders.

"To your first taste." He says, salaciously, picking up the handle of his drink. I take my own and we tap cups softly. In one long gulp, he swallows and I watch his throat bob, wishing I could kiss him there but I shake myself.

I look down at the foam, seeing a golden liquid through the bubbles. Was I supposed to drink it down so quickly? With a sip, I taste. It's not bad, its cold and almost sweet but as it hits my belly its... warm? I like it, so I tip it back, gulping a little more than half of it before I stop, using my arm to wipe at my face as the foam had tickled my nose so much I can't fight it crinkling.

Meliodas looked shocked and I giggled, leaning forward with my hand over my mouth. "Did I do it wrong?" I ask, my belly swirling. "I'm warm here." I touch my tummy "Not like when you feel me but, nice." I murmur and Meliodas' eyes go moss green, a perverted grin twisting at his lips.

We find a table but before I could sit in my own seat, Meliodas pulls me into his lap, crossways. I laugh, moving to take another of the stools but our troop mates swarm to take the remaining seats and I settle back, sipping my mead, trying to be comfortable with this.

Some ask how we met, others if the Commandments knew and I drank another round when they asked how the goddesses felt when I left them to be with their Prince. They made it sound like I betrayed my people to be here. I guess they didn't know the circumstances... was that the rumor? Meliodas' answered with jokes, ribbing a few of them for being nosey. When they got bored with me they turned to others to drill them with questions.

One of the men that had been here when we first arrived started strumming on a lute and music filled the place. People went wild, Nanat actually got on a table before she was yanked down with a well-placed ankle grab. I wiggled, trying to get a better view and under my thigh, I felt his hard member press into me.

Shocked I met his gaze, his eyebrow was quirked as he grinned, taking another long swig of his fifth or sixth cup. I was on my third, but his eyes held so much promise that I pooled in my panties just like that. Wet. He had that much control over my body. I shivered and he put his mug down, hand slipping away. While I took another sip of my drink, his fingers rest on my thigh and I flinch, rubbing against his hardness all the more, accidentally.

In alarm I grip his hand with my free one, looking around over the rim of my mug. Everyone looked busy, in debates with one another, a couple even making out against the wall with multiple limbs exploring one another, Groder and who? Not to mention the dancing that had broken out in the center, shoes tapping on the wooden floor. Maybe it was the drink, or maybe it was the atmosphere but I lifted my hand off his and looped my arm over his shoulder. I giggled at his stunned look and I kissed the side of his mouth chaste and quick.

"What?" I ask, taking another sip and there was the bottom of my mug again.

He laughs, fingers trailing down but with a soft, meaningful smile he simply grips my hip to pull me across his hardness and it reminds me of my dream. I dip, coming to his ear. "I want to touch you... with me," I whisper and when I grow hot, pulling away to look at him, he looks confused for a moment until I rock to grind myself in a little circle over his member. His eyes go wide, clear green depths that went on for miles reflected my burning face in his orbs..

In a sudden move of his, I was up and thrown over his shoulder, and with much ado he told everyone we were leaving. He smacked my behind and a few cheered. 

"Meliodas!" I scolded and when he turned toward the door I smacked his behind in retaliation, getting even more cheers and a few hoots. He laughed, asking the wide mouth bartender to send on the night's bill, and when we hit the street he took off at a run toward the castle. I had to keep my wings tucked, but feathers shed in our wake from the wind rushing against their grain .

In no time with his quick run, we're in our rooms, his hands going for my dress hem but Estarossa weaves between us. Obviously excited to see we're home. "Sorry pup," Meliodas says, in one full sweep he removes my dress over my head and I sway, having just been holding on for dear life on the ride here. Now, in my underwear. I pat the excited dog in greeting but Meliodas wastes no time, picking me up by my thighs, to wrap them around his hips and heading to the bedroom.

"No!" I exclaimed, wrapping my arms around his head to squish my breasts around his face. "In the bath! All slippery!" He stops, frozen in place before slowly lowering me to put my feet on the ground and looking up at me from my embrace. Estarossa rubs against our legs, circling.

"You're drunk." Meliodas hushes, so wistful "it would be the right thing to do... to not take advantage of you." He looks so torn, so contrite. "You've trusted me with your first time, drinking that is, so I have to honor that."

"Oh," I breath, letting him go and stepping around the excited puppy and heading to the bath. "But I'll be so lonely," I look over my shoulder, he's watching my hips and slowly meets my eyes with a tortured expression, "naked and wet." Even trying to be enticing, he stays rooted to the ground, his face tense.

Inside the bathroom, I start the water, thinking I must really be bad at this. Twice now I've tried to start things with him and both times he's stayed away. I just started stacking the wood logs for the fire when the door opened and in walked Meliodas. "Let me heat your bath." He says and I try to stifle my emerging hope. Maybe he was going to join me?

"Do you not like when I... initiate things?" I ask, shy as he starts the fire under the water tub. He's still dressed and one of my feathers is stuck to his shoulder. I reach for it, plucking it from him, but he sees me. His expression was one of heartbreak.

"Give it a few minutes." He motions to the bath, no longer looking at me and I frown, the feather still in my hand. He turns to go and I panic.

"Please don't!" I rush, "I don't think I'm drunk, I just... feel brave and warm and... Can you be drunk off three drinks?" I ask, and he pauses. The only sound beside the rushing water was the poor dog scratching at the door. "I always thought being honorable is overrated," I whisper, taping my bare toe on the stone floor behind me and he chuckles.

"I like when you come on to me." He says and I flush as he turns to face me, starting to unbutton his shirt buttons.

"I like when you cum on me too," I reply, feeling all the hotter having admitted it while knowing he is going to take a bath with me. His laugh echoes in the tile room and the sound makes me smile.

"I like that too," His eyes twinkle "but when you initiate things, it's called a come on. It is a great disservice that the first time you initiated I was unsure about your magic summoning demons upon us and now... in an attempt to not take advantage of you, I've denied you again." He looks me over, was he actually blushing? "I'm full of contradictions with you, I let you get comfortable with me on my terms, but then shut down your attempts. I'm sorry, Elizabeth."

"Oh, don't be!" I say, and stupidly I realize I'm still holding my feather. I toss it away, using my arms to cover my chest and my wings flutter nervously. "I've never taken a bath with a man before. Unless you count the waterfalls." I admit, wishing I had one more drink to keep myself from my nerves.

He pulls at the ties of his pants and I watch as he bobs free, kicking them in the corner, leaving his shirt where it fell. Meliodas feels the water, stokes the flames and then smiles at me as if I'm something to eat. I grow hot, suddenly nervous. "You take the lead, Elizabeth. Whatever you want tonight, okay?" He speaks so softly, offering his hand and I don't hesitate to take it.

We ease into the bathtub and it's very pleasant. The warmth reminds me of Megadozer. I shift nervously, settling in while Meliodas does the same. It's big enough in here for the two of us to comfortably fit and we settle in opposite one another, seats built in at either end. When the tub is full he shuts off the water and I realize what I've started here, what I had to do. "Are you nervous before you touch me?" I wonder if it felt like this for him too. A little exciting, tummy full of flutters, limbs shaky.

"The anticipation is... consuming." His elbows rest on the edge as he leans his back against the side of the tub, opposite me. "The thrill of it in public is comparable to intoxication but it feels more intense when we're alone." He's so open, actually relaxing and I find myself unwinding as well. The warm feeling still swirled in my belly and my head still felt light. He adds, "Your touch is unlike any touch I've ever had before. So, I have a hard time keeping my hands to myself."

The hot water added to my fogginess but with his soft confession, I reach for him. Sloshing softly through the water to feel him. "Your touch means more to me, too," I admit, my fingers grazing at his chest and I stop as my knees hit his. There was a lip to sit on and I pause. When I touch myself, it's a dull imitation to how much more I feel when it's his hands on me.

"Elizabeth..." Meliodas say, kindness in his gaze as I look at him, nervous. "Did your mother give you any abilities?" The topic change confused me but I answer.

"I'd know if she had, right?" When he nodded, slow, I shook my head as I said, "then no." He accepts my answer quickly, looking peaceful and I wonder if this had to do with his commandment. He is the only person I'd ever come to know that understands the pressure that comes with being born to a deity. He was older than I am, had much more responsibilities but all of this is waiting for me in some way or another among the goddesses.

I frowned, head swimming with haze as I thought, if we were both the next leader of our prospective clans then would that make it harder to be together or would it cement our peace? I'd have to talk to him about that later, to see if we could use our birthrights to our advantage, even though now it seemed like the biggest block before us, between us.

With a little shiver, I spread my legs to straddle Meliodas', feeling a chill in the water. My nipples peaked and I gripped his shoulders as I adjusted myself to sit on his knees, suddenly too shy to press us any closer. Meliodas groans, low, looking up at me through hooded eyes. They almost glowed, the moonlight shining in them from the uncovered window and the flickering flames under the bath our only source of light.

His elbows drop from the edge of the tub, hands flowing through the water to grasp my hips. He stayed true to his word, he let me take the lead but his fingers grazed there, my skin tingling as he murmurs "you're so supple and warm."

I inched forward, arching in and he tilts up to meet my kiss. It's soft, sweet and I feel my insides shift to jelly. Cupping his jaw, my hands slip down his neck and our mouths open, tingles shooting down my spine and my head swims, feeling light. I shiver, cold, but Meliodas is warmer, so I press forward, knowing what was to come...

He's hard, a solid rod that presses to my inner thigh and I stop, eyes widening to meet the adoration shining in Meliodas'. Our kiss falters, both gasping at the contact and my hands continue its slide under water, across his torso, and over his abs. Without hesitation, as I knew how to handle him now, I gripped him, the water making it so much easier to slip along his rigid hardness.

At first contact, he moaned into my mouth and we parted, our foreheads connected as the steam from our bath swirled between us. His grip on my hips grew firmer, squeezing and relaxing as I press forward, angling his member to meet my sensitive nub and I waver. My vision blurred for a moment and I blinked, wondering if I had drank too much? With a steadying breath, I stroke him as I move my hips forward and we make contact... right there.

My core quivers and I shudder. Without Meliodas' grip at my hips, I think I would have fallen as I lost muscle function for a moment. "Oh," I whisper, both of us gazing down at us through the water. "I can't stop... shaking." My voice sounds strangled, choking in my throat. He squeezes my hips, tight and I resume my exploration, rubbing the head against my slit.

"Why does it feel so..." I'm in awe, using my hips to twisted over him, the pressure at my core and the rhythm I chose felt like my body instinctively knew what to do. "... dizzying." I gripped his shoulder with my free hand, sliding up from his chest to steady myself, my legs trembling under me as I felt myself approach the abyss of pleasure.

I held off, trying to make this last longer. His neck muscles strained, groaning under me and with a little tilt of my pelvis I arched back, my breasts pressed to his face. Meliodas didn't waste the opportunity, his tongue flicking out to claim a peak, his hands keeping me in his lap as he added his own movement to our dance.

I feel so hot all over. His ministrations with his mouth speed me faster to the finish line and I moaned, low and throaty, slipping him down my slit and back up. Him, positioned under my core, had us both gasping at the sensation. Our breaths even move in accord. "Elizabeth..." He choked out, warning me that he was close and I writhed over him, desperate as he strained to hold out. My head floated, my vision blurred and I tipped over the edge into the numb abyss of pleasure. His name rips from my throat as I arch, his hardness pulses in my palm for a thrilling moment before he pulls my hips forward my hand separating from him, my core flush with his hips, his member under the swell of my ass.

"You're... Everything." Meliodas professes. A prayer in the dark. I marvel at his gratified expression and my glow fades, flickering out. My grip at his shoulder weakens, slipping down and my legs give out. The waves of pulsing adrenaline simmer to nothing and I realize too late what was happening to me. I couldn't keep up with the drills, I hadn't been at full power in the cube, the fuzzy feeling in the tavern and the water feeling chilled despite being heated.

"I'm sorry," I whisper, my wings flutter as I fall back, fighting to stay conscious as Meliodas jolts into action, catching me. He stands, sliding against me and my body quivers with leftover pleasure, a small smile twisting at my lips. Meliodas didn't return it, looking me over as if he could find and squash whatever was harming me. "I was careless... a fever..."

"No... I should have noticed. You were so flushed, I thought it was the mead." He stammered, moving us, stepping up on the seat to hop out of the bath. I tried to hold on to him but I could only reach his chest before my hand flopped uselessly. He adjusted how he carried me, skipping the towel to head to the main room and tears welled in frustration.

"I'm sorry I'm not strong..." I whispered, voice thick with tears, my chest squeezing and I hear the low timbre of his voice but I was falling again. Not into the abyss of pleasure, but into dark nothingness.


	26. A Mirage

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Mirage

Wet nose. Fur in my face. Estarossa? Hm, What a wonderful dream. I tried to pry my eyes open but the effort is too much, so I felt the bedsheets. If they are cotton I am home in the temple, having dreamt our reunion in my fever, but soft silk met my skin and I smile softly.

"Elizabeth?" The bed moved. A low 'hmm' echoed from my throat and calloused hands took mine from the silk to hold it against his face. Meliodas. With effort, I tried to comfort him, moving my fingers a few centimeters. "Uhhh." His throaty voice groaned, nuzzling my hand as if he'd been starved and my touch was the first taste of substance.

With careful adjustments I'm laying on my back, his free hand touching my cheek. "Open your eyes, there is so much going on and I need to tell you-" My fingers go limp against him and the darkness calls me. "Please." He begs and I fight it, lifting my lids with all the strength I could muster, feeling like I'd just picked up a horse from the effort.

Through the slitted lids, I met panicked green eyes. "There you are." He smiles, we were like ying and yang, my hand held to his cheek and his cupping mine. "Stay with me this time." I've awoken before?

"How-" My lips are dry and I wince at the sound of my scratching voice, it dies in my throat as I silently mouth 'long?'

"Three days." Meliodas answers, "I've been at your side every minute possible." My eyes close and he shakes me, bouncing his knees on the bed to jolt the mattress under me and I lift the horses over my eyes, again. Dazed, I can't focus on him.

"Cold," I tell him, I needed to cool down or I'd just sleep.

"I know, but your temperature is too high, I can't wrap you up." He lets go of me, going to the table and when he returns he scoops under my shoulders to sit me up. The room spins and my head lulls but he adjusts his hold to rest my head between his collarbone and neck. His face pressed to my forehead as a cool glass is pressed to my lips. "Drink." He commands as he tilts it and I swallow, the cool liquid clearing my mind but I'm shivering from the contact.

I cough, the glass pulled away in time to prevent a mess,but he presses it to my lips again when my lungs stop burning. I try to turn away but Meliodas chides "Drink, Elizabeth." His tone is direct and I pout, looking up at him.

A little chuckle rumbles from his chest but he insists and I take a few more swallows. When the glass is gone he eases, shifting under me, holding me to rest against him. "Your absence has been noticed. The people here worry I've harmed you. You've stolen so many hearts." His grip around me tightens and my wing is pressed closer to my body. "The villagers, the guards and even the newest members of the demon army." He sounds awed and I tried to lean back to look up at him.

His brows were furrowed, his eyes dark and his lips thin.

"Don't" I scratch out "worry", ending in a whisper and he tries to hide his expression, smiling down at me. I wasn't fooled but my eyes slip closed and all the shaking, the touching and calling to me couldn't slow this fall into the darkness. I didn't want to leave him. The realization of just how devastated I would be without him shocked me and I gasped, alarmed before even that thought slipped away.

Just out of reach.

X X X.

Soft hands tugged my arm through a sleeve, my head handled calmly as fabric brushed across my face. Lady Graelle? She'd dress me when I was under too long. My other arm was tugged through with more respectful touches; and I knew it wasn't her. Who is this?

My eyes lifted, heavy but manageable and I took in the ceiling, the tiles of Meliodas' bedroom. I sigh, relieved. The grip tugging my shirt down freezes and I see Mina's pretty face loom over me with alarm and relief.

"Hurry, heal yourself before you slip back under." She picks up my hand for me, placing it on my head and I slowly shake my head side to side. No, that doesn't work for this. Mina looks distraught for a moment. "I have to get the Lord Master," but she doesn't move. "He's in with the Commandments but he's ordered me, if you are to rise to... Interrupt."

The commandments were back? Did something happen? I focused, trying to rise but Mina stops me, wasting my efforts as she easily forces me down. She's torn, nervously looking at the door and then at me. Mina was terrified of Meliodas and with the commandments, interrupting would be a nightmare for her.

"It's okay," I whisper as if speaking through a straw. With how I felt, I knew I wouldn't last long. "How long?" I asked, hoping I was past the worst of it.

"Five days." Mina squeaked but suddenly she changed, like steel shot down her spine, she grew determined. "I'll get the Lord Master. I can't ignore a direct order." She turns to leave, long strides and when the door opens in comes our dog. Estarossa jumps up on the bed with a lolling tongue and he licks my face, happily.

"No," I groan out slowly to Mina but the door snaps closed behind her and I weakly push the puppy away but turn it into a stroke of his fur. "Hi boy." I croak from my throat, using everything I had to roll into a sit. As if he knew, Estarossa tucked his head under my arm and I used him as an anchor to slide my legs off and touch the floor. It felt right to move, my muscles thriving with the motion.

My head swam. I need water. Meliodas put the cup beside the bed last time and I turn, slow and with much effort. There. With Estarossa assisting as best he could I grabbed the glass, pulling it toward me. My wings spasmed, twitched and I felt the blackness swirl as my vision blurs.

"Oh." I'm off balance and I tumbled forward, water spilled as I face plant on the floor, arms too slow to brace myself and in a wet heap on the floor, I let myself fall back into the abyss. Sorry, Mina... Meliodas...

X X X.

Needles? A thousand freezing cold pricks at my skin and awareness flooded me. My eyes shoot open and I flail, even my wings spread wide while I gripped to the nearest thing, warm arms held me against a firm chest. Meliodas. I relax, shivering, head over his shoulder. We are in the bathtub, in cold water?

Darkness is seeping in every direction, the air is filled with thick miasma, a cloud of it in the tight confines of this little room. There is no fire and the window is covered in a dark purple film of demon power. It's like the bubble he'd put us in when I'd been topless in his Megadozer cave while Chandler had tried to come in, but this is much, much more.

My eyes adjusted and even with my freezing, protesting muscles, I leaned away from Meliodas' shoulder. His skin leaked the wisps of darkness but his flesh had changed too, no longer pale but black, as if he himself were turning into it. Weakly, I touched his shoulder and the velvet wisps played at my fingers.

Something's happened.

In a rush, I touched my forehead, a soft glow emitting as I reinvigorated myself. It didn't truly help, but it borrowed from the future to give me more time now. In the glow, the thick cloud of miasma dissipated and I got a quick peek at the side of Meliodas' face. Dark, hair over his eyes and he's blank. As if his face has been wiped clean of any feelings.

Using his shoulders to steady myself I moved in his lap, adjusting to sit before him with my knees on either side of his hips. Slowly, when the burning cold turned to a low ache and my legs felt solid holding me up on his knees, I touched either side of his face.

"M-melio-das?" Even my voice is shivering.

He strained to lift his face to look at mine, his eyes stopped at my nose, black as night. He should be shivering too, but is still, a solid wall of tension and completely clothed. Wait, so am I? Did he not bother undressing us? Had he been in that much of a rush to wake me?

My eyes close, absorbing all of this and instantaneously Meliodas's arms tense across my back.

"No, no. Stay with me!" He sounds frantic and panicked, shaking me. "I need you!" I wasn't even close to falling into the abyss, but I snap my eyes open, alarmed with his reaction. Had I been that out of it?

No. He was that out of it.

"I'm not going anywhere," I state, firmly, my fingers splaying across his cheeks and he's... gritty? I press my forehead to him and he refused to meet my eye but I know he needs to feel me. This close I can smell brimstone and fumes. Toxic fumes. I knew his magic didn't smell this way, it was his hair.

Through the water I press as close to him as I can, his arms pulling me forward to assist my efforts. Our cores touched and he is so warm, but the thought was so far from my mind with the state Meliodas was in. My heart raced, his dark velvet tendrils gripped around me, usually chilled but feeling warm in comparison to the water. "What happened?"

He shuddered under me, fingers gripping and slipping against the skin at my exposed back where my wings are.

"The Demon King," He stated, wavering but monotone "he knows." My breath hitched and I tilted my shoulders back to look at him, disconnecting from his forehead. "He knows I've been keeping you, I didn't expect... I knew it would be bad but I had no idea the lengths he would go." Meliodas sounded lost, his eyes roaming my face as if soaking me in, but still, he wouldn't meet my gaze.

"I... to get out... to come back to you I had to-" His head falls forward, drips falling into the bath with little plips and the purple-darkness around the room swirls violently. "I had to tell him how I set out to use your body and your information against you." Meliodas is hoarse as he forced the words out. He stops as if unable to continue but his mouth moved, his muscles strained and his grip is almost painful at my back. I didn't complain, lacing my fingers through his hair. My fingers found an open wound at his scalp, dried blood and pebbles flaking from my gentle, accidental touch.

"It's okay." I try to reassure "I trust you, whatever you had to do to come back." I shiver, realizing he had been to purgatory. Meliodas had told me time moves differently there. A minute here is a year there. With as much tenderness as I could muster, I place soft kisses on the dark demon mark, on the tinted skin of his cheeks and across his tense lips.

Meliodas finally meets my eyes as he tells me, "you shouldn't trust me. My father can see through lies and I didn't lie. I set out, at the start of this to-" Oh. I sit back, and he squeezes his eyes closed in guilt? In the beginning he had been the only one to want to end the war, to listen. My eyes fill and my own plips slap against the water. I knew him, I knew he didn't feel that way anymore and that's all that mattered.

"I proposed the treaty the day I met you intending not to abide, to use it to our advantage and now... now I'm piecing everything together, praying it will hold." His voice goes from harsh to desperate "so we can be together. But even with it, we're building a house on a crumbling foundation, Elizabeth..." He's lost.

With all the strength I had, I hugged him, cradling his head to my chest as he sobs. My heart broke for him, for what he'd been through but I had hope for our future. I'd been blooming with it, each day that passed here, with each new demon that accepted me, the flame of hope grew stronger.

"It doesn't matter about the beginning." I shiver, the cold lapping at my fevered body. "Meliodas, I'm glad you did what you had to do to come back to me." I'm surprised at my conviction in the state I am in, but for Meliodas I found pockets full of it.

I hold him, as close as I can but he's like a solid wall. His magic churned violently. My words hadn't reached him. On the edge of the bath is a rag and soaps. With slow movements, I grip the rag and move the soap closer. Meliodas was clothed and with no resistance from him, I pulled back to undo his shirt.

Looking at him, with how dark he was, I don't think he even registered what was happening. "I'm here, Meliodas," I whisper, his shining eyes meeting mine before dropping his head as if ashamed. I'd have none of that. With the tips of my fingers I lifted his chin but his dark eyes looked right past me, making me shiver from the lack of recognition in him. When his jaw slipped from my fingers his head dipped again. I went back to my task and with his shirt undone, darkness leaked into the water as I had to pull the clothes stuck to his flesh. "Let me wash it all away."

With gentle ministrations, I started with his neck, easing him forward to peel his shirt off his back and down his arms. It clung, the water already murky, but Meliodas either didn't notice or didn't care as I tear it free from his flesh as smoothly as possible. He had burns on his arms, a healed scar at his shoulder and as I ran the rag over his back I felt a laceration at his side, I followed it around to his torso. It was jagged and I cried all the harder realizing he had been pierced through. The water wasn't turning from his tendrils, its darkneing from his blood oozing into the bath.

"Meliodas?" I ask, tentative and trying to reach him. His head tilted a few degrees to me, but he didn't respond. I sucked in a gasping breath as I cleaned around the serrated wound on his torso. Trying to be subtle, I heal him, slowly, but the glow under the water draws an instant reaction from the stoic, ruined man before me. He grips my hand, pulling it from his wound and storm-filled eyes raged, warning me. I'm not afraid, I am actually relieved, as the first hint of green sparked to life in his hollow eyes. "I just... want to ease your hurts," I whisper and the exquisite green spread.

With his attention captured I washed his face, pushing his gritty hair from his forehead, wetting it. "You do." Meliodas whispers, low and harsh, seemingly declaring it to himself. Then, his partially clean face centers to mine. "Don't waste your energy on me, you're still fevered." Even full demon, as his demon mark was a complete circle with tendrils reaching far across his eyes and into his hairline, he worried for me.

I slip off his knees, finding the seat across from him and his eyes widen in panic. "Come here." I request and I hold open my arms. Instantly, he pushed to the middle of the bath. "Lean back." I ease him to lay back in my hold, and I dip him, scoping the water up and rinsing out his hair, leaning with him. My fingers ease the tangles, gently I lather, rise and it takes a few washes before the grits gone. The cut on the side of his head is so tempting to heal but I didn't want him to put a stop to this. If cleaning his body was all he'd allow, then he would be bathed to perfection.

"I'm supposed to be taking care of you." He mutters, voice tinged with something sounding so far away yet I can't help but smile hearing it. I look from my ministrations at his scalp to find the darkest hints of green of eyes. It hadn't faded.

"We take care of each other," I whispered, pushing the water from his hair and he straightens. The rag still clutched in my hand, I brought it forth to wipe at his face, the miasma thinning. "I'm sorry this happened because of me," I choke, eyes filling again and his face softens all the more as my tear plops echo in the silence.

The water clears, a shining pure bath, and I notice through it that the bleeding at Meliodas' torso has stopped. He opens his mouth to say something but snapped it closed quick, standing and positioning himself between me and the door, his dark magic flaring intensely. A moment later, I hear Estarossa's low grumbling barks, there's a knock, a low curse and the doors open.

Moving forward, I put my hands on Meliodas' bare back and peek around him to see who'd come in. Mina said the commandments are here but would any of them come? I make out dark hair, short stature and when the man makes contact with Meliodas' darkness, his flares to life, pressing against it. It looked like he created a bubble of purple darkness to repel what is here already.

Zeldris? The door is shut behind him, his foot pushing the dog away as it latches and Estarossa scratches at it from the outside, barking. He had a crate in his arms and without looking over, he put it down beside the door before standing.

Meliodas' dark tendrils loop around me, my wet dress didn't cover much so I was grateful for the extra layer of protection to cover my body. Zeldris looks around, weary at all the darkness in the room and with a start, he meets my eyes. "Oh." He blurts, looking at Meliodas questioningly. "Are you sure it's a good idea to have her here with the state you're in?" Zeldris' arm waves vaguely over the miasma in the air, the slimy power that pulsed around us and the velvet tendrils.

"I would never harm her." Meliodas proclaims and Zeldris looks less concerned but he meets my gaze as if trying to tell me something, but it was in a language I didn't speak. I didn't know him well enough to even guess.

Zeldris tentatively steps forward and the temperature changes. The air turned colder and I my shivering renewed. I pressed closer to Meliodas for his warmth. I didn't know what changed for a moment until I recognized the slippery feeling of the magic. Meliodas activated his commandment, all my efforts to calm his inferno, and now this. Zeldris' shoulders tensed but he took three more steps forward before he is halted. He's only two feet away and still standing, but I could tell Zeldris is straining against the power.

In a show of determination and love? Zeldris fights the commandment, stepping forward and at the edge of the bath, he falls to his knees, face absent of any anger.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Zeldris speaks, calm and expectant. I could see him bracing himself for something. "He kept you a long time." He paused as if gathering the nerve, "Was she worth all that, to endure-" his words are cut off in a pained groan as the air frosts, my breath misting and the tub we are in cracks down the middle, water rushing across the tile and around Zeldris.

Meliodas waved his hand and the tendrils swirling in the miasma sharpened to points, all turning to Zeldris. I move, alarmed, grabbing at Meliodas' arm and the tendrils stop, frozen in place. With the darkness circling my body to cover my soaked clothes, I step around him, water sloshing at my feet in my rush. "Meliodas," I ease into his side and the arm I grabbed snaked around my waist. "He means no harm."

Meliodas eases up, his miasma fading and I wrap my arm around his waist with the other at his shoulder, trying to protect him from his own hostility. "She's okay, so everything fine." Meliodas' voice is matter-fact, cold, and my wide eyes meet Zeldris'. He nods, slowly, as if he understands. With the commandment having faded Zeldris stands, giving his brother a long look.

"You're sure?" He asked and Meliodas nods once with finality. "Then be grateful he took his anger out on you. Next time it might be her he uses to slack his vengeance upon." The air had just lightened, but at Zeldris' words, it grew heavy, my lungs actually struggling to take in the darkness and I cough lightly. Meliodas slowly turns to look up at me, eyes bleeding into onyx, the green nonexistent, but his brows furrowed as if concerned. I can't help but be glad for any expression in him.

Suddenly, the air cleared, all of the miasmas sucked into Meliodas, a vacuum of absorbing power. Even the tendrils and dark bubble in the room seeps backward as if an explosion played in reverse. His skin swirls with the power and still meeting my eyes, he turns completely black. His face, with tendrils flicking up from his neck the only flesh that remains his regular tan shade outside of the demon mark. The tendrils around my body are the only external display of his magic.

His body was the blackest I'd ever seen but I smile, relieved, soft and soaking wet. Just then the crumbling bath under us shifted like a sinking ship. Meliodas jumped us out, taking the brunt as we landed on the other side of Zeldris. I had forgotten about him. Zeldris stood there, so stunned, I could have blown him away with one of my feathers.

"See yourself out," Meliodas commands, cold, leading me to the door. Our feet slopped over the layer of water on the floor. At the door he stopped, I looked at the case of bottled alcohol Zeldris had brought. His brother cared. I think Meliodas came to the same realization as he spoke "Thank you, Zeldris."

Outside the bathroom, the water had leaked from under the door and Estarossa is pawing at it. Over my shoulder, I gave Zeldris a soft, reassuring smile and surprisingly, he returned it. Although it ended in a scowl as if he changed his mind mid-emotion. The door closed between us.

Our wet feet prints followed us, his looked clawed and I see his darkness had formed over his feet similar to a birds talons. We may be out of the proverbial hole, but we were still in the woods. The velvet darkness swirled around me, giving Estarossa pause as he warily watches us walk to our room. Our pup is afraid of him.

Outside of the cold water, my body is warming again, my head growing light. In our rooms, Meliodas gathers me up to him and we sit on the floor, me across his lap as if this is as far as he can go without more of my touch. I felt like I were attached to him, the darkness fusing from around me to the darkness around him. With tenderness I felt the edges of the marks around his face, kissing him across his cheeks again as he always liked that. He groaned, as if it hurt, but pressed me closer to prevent my retreat.

"How old are you now, Meliodas?" I ask. He didn't seem to look any older. Maybe going between the realms did that. He had to appease his father and his body was stuck in between here and there?

"385." He states, lips barely brushing my cheek. My own kisses halt.

"It took one hundred and sixty years..." He'd been gone for so long and it had been mere moments for me! I clutched him harder, my kisses firmer and intense with new emotions.

"I didn't want to," his breath is heavy as if his lungs were full of liquid, "betray you." His eyes were swirling and I smiled reassuringly as I pull away enough to look into him.

"You haven't," I tell him, but I didn't think he believed me. "Meliodas." I forced him to face me, eye to eye as our noses touched. "You do whatever you have to come back to me, always. I share this burden with you. We have each other! Bottom line, that's all that matters." He looks at me desperately and I kiss him, quickly before I start again "If you say this is what you had to do, I trust you, and I'm glad you did it."

My vision blurred, and I relaxed into him, feeling the fever start to creep back into my consciousness. "Tell me about it. Tell me so I can shoulder this with you." Tears fall and I didn't notice until I feel them slide down my cheek. He's silent for a long, tense breath.

"He likes to harden me when he feels I've grown soft." His breathing changed, choppy breaths as his eyes lightened to a green, filled with tears. "I, for a little while... thought that you'd been a dream." He cried, holding on to me as if he would slip away without me. "You're too perfect... it makes more sense that there couldn't be someone like you, than to believe you cared about someone like me. In the end he couldn't keep me from you. Not with the possibility, the sliver of hope I had of you being in this world waiting for me." His demon skin fades, tan flesh with new scars show under the receding darkness. I hush him, kissing his hair as he falls into my neck, my arms holding him so tight.

I reassure him, whispering sweet words and making sure to touch him as much as I can, my hand roaming up and down his bare back. Whatever happened to Meliodas, it is a miracle that he could recover at all. His mind had been played at, his body wrecked more than a few times judging from the scars and open wounds. I put all my feelings into my touch, my kisses, and my words.

Slowly, he gathers himself.

"I'll always be by your side, Meliodas," I promise. That's when he pulls back. His demon mark is a half circle, his tendrils thinning strips across my body and his legs were un-talloned. "You're you again." I exhaled in relief as I watched Meliodas' demon darkness ease to make room for the kind green eyed man I admired so much.

"You fill me up." He looks across my body, it seems to dawn on him then that I'm shivering in my wet dress. Meliodas looks confused as to how I got that way. Then his face hardened, his tendrils sizzled away to nothing, the dark mist faded into the air as if it never existed.

"What's that face for?" I ask, tilting my head to intercept his gaze from the clinging fabric of my dress. Self loathing? No, he couldn't hate himself. Could he? My mind must be playing tricks, it did that when I went through my fevers.

"When my darkness seeps out, touching you, it's a reminder of how bright you are." He's hoarse with emotion. "I've lived in the blackness my entire life, it's so hard to look sometimes... but it's useless to resist. I'm a moth, diving into you, knowing I'll get burned and I don't care."

I grow hot in the face, my body shivering. 'Me too, Meliodas. I'll burn with you.'

"You shouldn't be ashamed of something that's natural, it's just another part of you for me to admire," I beamed a smile as my head swirled. I knew I didn't have long until I'd be sleeping again. He gives a tentative smile and that won't do, I wanted more. "It feels, nice." I joke, remembering our time by the ocean. Meliodas' eyes twinkle, his chest bouncing as he huffs a little laugh.

"Nice?" He asks with humor, obviously understanding while pressing our smiling lips together in a kiss.

The world tilts, I'm dizzy and I grip Meliodas to steady myself just to realize we hadn't moved. The abyss called, the ground my consciousness stood on was crumbling underfoot. He pulls away, looking at me with concern and I try to reassure him but I can't focus on his face. I'm wavering.

"Please... don't leave me." He begs, eyes filling again. He'd just spent one hundred and sixty years in purgatory thinking I wasn't real! I fought to stay, straining before I'm gripped in the clutches of my failing body.

"I'll always find my way back to you," I whisper, my hand falling limply from his shoulder and the last thing I saw was his devastated, mournful face, tears in his eyes and my heart broke. It tore at my chest and I felt like I was bleeding open inside.

I never, never, wanted to see him look at me like that again.


	27. A Tasty Tart

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle, I can't thank you enough. You are a doll.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Tasty Tart

A cool sponge moved over my breast, gentle and unhurried. It trailed down my tummy and swirled at my belly button. Mina? Would Meliodas allow her to do this? I didn't think so, but if it was Meliodas wouldn't he sneak skin to skin touch? Under my bare back and wings, I felt a cush rougher fabric, a towel? I am still in bed but my calves were dangling over the edge.

"How long?" I scratch out and the sponge stops, a heavy breath exhales.

"Six days," Meliodas sighs, relief in his voice. Slowly, my heavy arm comes up to my forehead as I crack my eyes open. I'm still hot. I can tell its curbing and I decide against reinvigorating myself as I might kick this faster if I didn't. I look for him, but the room is empty. Frowning, I use my elbows to prop myself up and his messy head is resting on the edge of the bed by my knee. He's smiling softly, but he isn't happy. I can tell from the set of his eyes.

With a stronger hold on my body, I pick myself up into a sitting position and run my fingers through his hair with the hand closest to him. "Hmmm" escapes his throat as he stares into me. "I'm sorry I've been such trouble."

His head shakes negatively, "It's nothing." He murmurs.

"Why weren't you touching me?" I inquire, shy, but curious. My arms move to cover my chest and my core. My hand pulls from his head to do so. His eyes close, pinched and he sits back on his knees on the floor, putting the sponge in the bowl. He was shirtless, his pants tied around his hips and they had water drops on them from the bath he'd been giving me.

"I'm not... deserving." Oh no.

"Is that about what you told the Demon King?" He shrugs and I take that for an affirmative. With a little maneuvering, I put my feet crossed at the ankles, by his knee to lean forward before him. "You've done nothing wrong, please believe me. You were so quick to dismiss my spying and reporting to Ludociel, I see it the same but I wasn't being tortured."

"I'm with you when-"

"No, Meliodas." I stop him, angling to force him to look at me. "There is nothing to forgive." I'm firm, eyes narrowing and slowly, Meliodas nods but his eyes are still tense. The bowl with the sponge was at his other knee and I bend, uncovering myself to wring it out. "A naked sponge bath from you shouldn't be like this." I chide and his eyebrows raise. "You're supposed to take liberties and act like you aren't. So, if you aren't committed to the task, I don't want one." I joke, his smile spread and with my chin high, I take my wet hand from the sponge to brush my knuckles against the front of his pants. His hardness met me and I flush, relieved that he is at least still reacting to me. I felt exposed, knowing he is affected.

His hand grabs mine, stopping my tentative touches. "You're not well enough." I couldn't argue with that.

"Then let me sponge bathe you, in thanks." He doesn't respond and I pull my hand from him as I bring the sponge to his shoulder. Butterflies erupt in my tummy but I hold them down, letting my free hand slip from the sponge and graze across his peck. In the best deep-voiced impression I could muster I say "Oh, don't get the wrong idea, the water is slippery."

Feeling all the more flushed, I look up to see his eyebrow quirked and his head tilted to the side. At least I amused him. I smiled back, feeling like I did a pretty good impression. I go down his torso, water dripping and trailing over him as I pull at the ties of his pants. "I'm only undressing you to take care of you... obviously that's why I'm completely naked without an inch covered." He laughed then, his head is thrown back as he holds both my hands in place, stopping me when I touch what's inside his pants.

I could have had a towel over any part of myself.

With almost no effort, I wiggle the hand over his hardness freeing myself from his grip to palm him. "Oh, I was just adjusting my grip on the sponge. It's an accident that I palmed your-" I'm already hot so can't flush more but I drop the silly voice and whisper "member."

His chest stills and his eyes are liquid swirling emeralds as his head falls forward to meet my eyes again. "You call it a member?" He takes the sponge back, grabbing my ankle, to finish washing me? From my knee to my feet. I lean away sitting upright, my hands covering my chest and core again as he was back to himself. He dipped the sponge, soft and his thumb around my ankle circles over my skin. It tingles.

"What about... cock or dick, shaft, manhood." His voice drops to a husky level when I keep eye contact with him while he speaks. Did he want me to call it that? "I don't want you to get the wrong idea, Elizabeth." He jokes, mocking me mocking him and his green eyes grow devious. "I just want to make sure you're clean." He takes my foot, putting it to his face and suddenly he was sucking on my toes.

"Ugh!" I gasp, falling back on the bed as sensations spread like wildfire.

How was this erotic? His tongue comes out, flicking it between my toes. It's warm, wicked and my spine arches as if he were touching me there, my core coming to life. "Oh!" How did he know so much?! That my body would like my toes being sucked? He played with me, then. Washing up my thigh and teasing at touching my core. When he washed my other foot and sucked those toes. I had the same twisting reaction, my body pulsing with pleasure and I flushed, thinking of his hot tongue at my core flicking and sucking at my nub.

That would be exhilarating. Would he feel like this if I sucked on his member? I mean, cock? He moves on, sponging my hips and then over my slit with wet fingers. I was already slick so he glides right over me, his fingers feeling ever so softly before he pulls away, seemingly finished.

"I'm curious, with you sweetly calling this a member," He stands, without the sponge, motioning over his hardness tenting in his pants. "What do you call your pretty little sex?" His eyes stared at it and I fidget, moving to cover myself. When I block his view he looks at my heated face with unmasked desire.

"My... slit," I whisper, feeling vulgar. Although it is thrilling and freeing to say it out loud.

"Not pussy, or kitty, sheath, or my favorite 'sweet spot'." His lips twist, enjoying tormenting me as I feel my face catch fire. "What about your little clit, it grows so swollen when I play at it, it begs to be sucked."

"Meliodas!" I exclaim, but he pulls the towel out from under me with a quick swoosh. He jumps in the bed, playfully and I bounce as he puts his hand under the side of his head to hold himself up laying, facing me. He's expectant. "My," Oh, please, "nub." I barely hear it but he melts and his eyelids droop in pleasure.

"I thought you'd say 'love button', but I like nub." He repeats it, over and over until I can't take it anymore and cover his mouth, rolling on top of him to keep him down. My wings flutter nervously when released from under my weight.

"Meliodas!" I hush scandalized and he laughs under me, his lips curling against my hands. I part my fingers, giving him a small kiss before settling my head down on his chest and resting. Already I felt tired, not as if I would sleep, but low on energy.

"You must be feeling better." He comments.

"I'll be stronger now," I tell him, knowing I'd told him about what my fevers did before, embarrassed that they marked a kind of puberty. I didn't want him to think of me as a child, so I didn't bring that fact up. "Maybe in a few days, we can see what I can do in the cube."

"Elizabeth." He mutters, sounding serious and I bend my neck back, head on his arm to look at him. "We have to leave." Hm? "My father has called the Commandments back. I won't allow them to harm you but Zeldris and I figured something out, to buy us more time." I frown, my face growing tight. 'A little more time' meant our end is inevitable.

He explained about a little girl, a magic user with the power of infinity. He'd met her before, a few years ago but with the war, both the Supreme Deity and the Demon King had taken notice of her. His father had tasked the Ten Commandments to send someone to her, to gather information and find out what the Supreme Deity was offering to ensure his gift was better.

"She needs help," I declare. If both of the gods were watching her then she's in danger. "It also means neither believe this treaty will last." My fingers at his ribs tucks under him to hold him, reassuring myself he is here.

"Of course they don't." He hisses through gritted teeth until cruel laughter enters his voice as he says "We'll be using our mage this time, sanctioned by the Demon King. Going myself isn't what he intended."

I push myself up, the arm under me needing the release of pressure anyways. "He won't be angry enough to take you... will he?" My voice is a low whisper as if the Demon King could hear if I spoke any louder. I tuck closer as if to protect him.

"Don't worry." He tells me, his hand coming to play with my hair at the side of my face. His thumb moves to press between my brows and I relax them, having not realized they were pressed so tightly. "Let me hold you." He states, wrapping up around me and I sag against him, laying on his chest with his hands playing at my hair, back and wings.

I feel comfortable, sleep calling me so sweetly but not dragging me under. I survived another fever, and I hoped it would be my last. It had hit pretty hard, but it might have been because of how much power I'd expelled before it started. His breathing grew even, relaxed, but his fingers playing so tenderly at my skin told me he wasn't sleeping.

"Squawk!" I flinch, hearing that damned bird. Beak and claw tapped at the glass and Meliodas slipped from under me, going to the window and retying his pants as he went. I watched, wide-eyed before pulling the blanket from the end to wrap around me. There was a note tied to his leg with a black ribbon and I sighed in relief.

Meliodas took the note, tossing it to me. It landed on the bed beside me as he picked up the bath bowl and let the bird rest on his arm. He walked them both out of the room and Estarossa bound in. His markings were fuller, he'd grown while I'd been fevered and I spotted yet another new fur color change on him. This one is of a strange shape, a clover? I greeted the puppy just as excited as he was to see me, the blankets falling away as I stand.

My muscles were tense and I stretched, Estarossa lazily spinning on the rug a few feet away before laying to watch me. I was reaching up, stretching my spine when Meliodas returned, bird free. He flushed, looking at me and I feel my cheeks do the same, growing warm. Then his gaze shifted to the dog, I watched as his demon mark bled onto his face, he went to the dog, bending down to get in Estarossa's face.

"Don't," Meliodas told the pup, a little aggressively. He had to be joking. He pointed and the poor dog got up. As if to apologize Meliodas scratched at the dog's rump saying "It's not your fault boy, sorry you can't be in here." The dog is let out and I grab the blanket, wrapping myself up, under my wings. My belly rumbled and I looked around. Just a glass of water, but I'd take it. I gulped it down, glad to be on my feet again.

"I'm sorry I was so much trouble," I whisper again, putting the cup down and looking at Meliodas over my shoulder. "I don't know why I still..." I bite my lip but Meliodas just smiles.

"You were no trouble at all. With your body available to me I took all kinds of, what did you call them? Oh, yes. Liberties." I tug the blanket closer, alarmed and he laughs at me, taking the note from the bed to unroll it. Since he's right before me, I look at the words written there.

'Good. More.' I flush, cursing Ludociel, but glad at least that he is satisfied.

"I want you to tell him about my weaknesses," Meliodas said, looking at me gravely.

"No," I answer simply and copying him from the last time we got a missive, I took it from his hand and tossed it over my shoulder as if I didn't care. "Instead, let's get as many sweets from the kitchen, eat until we can't take another bite and then lets... Well, I want you to pick what you'd like to do. Last time, I picked."

He smiles, wrapping his arms around my waist and nuzzling his face down into the bare parts of my chest by pushing the blanket away with his nose. His lips found my cleavage and he gave a little lick and suck before gripping the blankets and pulling me toward the closet. "Sounds wonderful, and I know just what to do. Something I've fantasized about since you're little dance at the theater."

I detangle from him, going to the closet myself and he follows. I spot a slew of new dresses in here. All demon-like in design, with slits and low cuts. I'm flustered from the sight, but I would fit in better, although my wings would give me away. I twist the new, black wrap dress around my hips, up over my breasts and tied it at my neck, pulling my hair to the side to do it. "Mmmm." Meliodas admired, feeling me. He hadn't put a shirt on and I watch when he moved to leave our rooms like that.

Estarossa rose to greet me and I stopped to pet him in the main room. "I feel like you've changed since I'd last saw you." I spoke to our dog before I look at Meliodas. "What's different?"

Gravely, he looks at the dog and then at me. "I think Polly made berry tarts. She's back to pushing out amazing food now that she has so much to work with, thanks to you."

We laughed down the halls, ate fruits and desserts in the kitchens. In no time I am full, my tummy aches, so unused to food but I knew I needed it. Meliodas stuffs himself, joking that Polly might be angry that he ate so much, but still forced another tart in his face with a big grin. I hadn't been to visit her in awhile and I felt bad I hadn't kept up with her cooking lessons.

"I have to say bye to Mina before we go." Meliodas nods and I tell him, "Pix too." His nod halts and he looks at me a little startled. "I probably can't go to Mr. Millians sick house, huh? The kids there..." Slowly, he shakes his head no. That meant no to our unit too, Yuri, Hoy, and Groder, all of them. I would miss these people and even his home.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. The fewer people that know where we are going and when we are leaving, the better." It did make sense. If Meliodas is worried, with his boundless strength and power then that's reason enough for me. We start our walk back to the room and he asks, a little wearily, "You're close friends with Pix, of the Shields of Faith?"

"She volunteered as my guard for when I-" Oh, right, they dated a long while ago. I flush, looking over at Meliodas with guilt. "Yeah." He sighs, looking down and I look away too. I take his hand, weaving our fingers together and he squeezes them.

"I feel like... everything before you, was a different time, a different me." Meliodas admits and I smile.

"Yeah, I know just what you mean." We meet gazes, turning back to one another, warm and soft. Jelamet, Charity's home and everything back in my floating city felt so far away, not just physically but as if that's not where I belonged anymore. I had other things in my life. When I hadn't before.

Back in our room the bird starts squawking and when Estarossa jumps up to bite at the bird I give him a 'that's a good boy!' I didn't chase him around like I normally would but I did give him a few playful tugs. Meliodas watched, bare chest drawing my eye and I swear he nonchalantly tightens up when he sees me looking. I smirk, and he laughs, playfully scooping me up.

"I'm gonna show you something new, Elizabeth." His one hand grips my butt while his teeth bites at my earlobe, hot breath making me shiver.

"What... what are we going to do?" I ask, wrapping my arms around him, suddenly nervous.

"I'm gonna fuck your tits until I can't stand it." He professes, nonchalant, it didn't sound like a joke.

"You... can do that?" I wondered, genuinely curious. Our door to the bedroom opens and while under the frame, he groans.

"Showing you will be my pleasure, in every sense of the word." The door slams behind us and inside the room his playful deviance simmers down. He sets me on my feet, reaching up to undo the ties of my dress and I gather my hair to the side to assist him. My clothes fell in a heap and we stare at one another.

"I want to hold you awhile," Meliodas confesses, taking my hand and placing it on his face as he closed his eyes and nuzzled it. "You seem to be much better but I don't want to do anything if you are feeling even a little bit ill."

I take his hand, to place it on my head so he can feel my temperature. I was warm but I wasn't burning hot anymore. Satisfied, he undressed and we went to bed. In a slow exploration, he worked an orgasm from me, curling his fingers inside me. I glowed, Meliodas seeming to bask in it, so many feelings on his face and it spurred me on.

"Your breasts are so soft and pillowy. I can't resist." He suckles them, playing at my peaks and careful of my wings he straddles my ribs. "Hold them together." I press from either side, nervously looking at him for reassurance. "Hmm. yes. Like that, let me look a while." He strokes himself with the hand he used to touch me, slick from my juices and with the other he lightly touches across my breasts.

His mouth opens and I tilt my head to watch him touch himself. He was rougher, jerking his dick around before positioning himself between my breasts and with me holding them together he presses in. His hips moved and he fell forward, his hands fall over my head to brace himself. Meliodas took heavy breaths, moving slow and steady, staring down. The tip poked out from the top of my rounded cleavage, then slid back in between my mounds.

If we coupled, he would move like this inside of me.

"You're slick with my juices," I whisper, looking up at his focused face. He meets my gaze, breathing in harsh pants and I tear away to watch him move. His hips were flicking forward in a rhythm that my body knew, evident from the bath. My own hips seemed to move in minuscule shifts as if to match him, the wet between my thighs slipping as I raised my knees up.

Bravely, I strained my neck and when his head poked from my cleavage I flicked my tongue up him as he had done to my nipples.

"Uuughnnn." Meliodas groaned, one of his hands cupping the back of my head as if to keep me there. His weight didn't shift, strong enough to stay steady with the one arm support. With each thrust, I swiped at his dickhead. He tasted warm, with a little of my cream mixed in but mostly like the rest of his flesh. I don't know why I expected him to taste differently here. "Your hot little mouth... Your soft tits... Uhhh..."

Meliodas releases my head, straining and I can feel his hips shaking with each thrust, holding himself back.

"Can I taste you?" I hush, my tongue stretching to feel him as long as possible as he retreats between my mounds.

"Elizabeth." He groans, I look up at him, tongue out and he looks like I just knocked all the thoughts out of his head. "You don't... You are too good to-"

"I want to taste you," I insisted, turning back to my task at his cock. I wished I could let go of my breasts to pull his hips toward me a little farther so I could do more than just tongue at him. I flushed, doubting myself. "Unless I'm... doing this wrong?" I question, shy as I peek a look up at him.

"No. No..." He groans, touching the side of my face with veneration, trembling. "You're wicked little tongue is driving. me. crazy." Meliodas strains. I get back to licking at each opportunity. I swiped at the cut where his cum shots from and a long groan roared from his chest, he actually hesitated to pull away. So I did it again. It tasted a little salty, my tongue having caught some of his ejaculate.

"Elizabeth I can't cum on your face... You're so much better than that."

"If it bothers you," lick-swipe, "then cum in my mouth."

"Uugh..." His arms shake, he's on the edge, the one I know so well. On the cusp of falling into the mind-numbing pleasure about to befall him.

"I want you to do it," I whisper, flushing from my own words. In a rush, with my tongue pressed to the tip of his cock, it spurts. It's thick, a bread dough flavor with a hint of warm salt and my tongue licks at the stream as it slaps at my face and drips down.

Meliodas' groan is continuous, his back arched inward and his head tilted to the ceiling, his neck muscles rigid. I watched him, in awe that I was able to cause so much pleasure in him. He twitched between my breasts, the last of his ejaculation dripped down my chest and pooled at my neck. Oops. I hadn't caught very much of it, he hadn't wanted to cum on my face. With a little apprehension, I tensed, waiting for his reaction.

"Oh. God. Elizabeth. If this is what it's like with juvenile foreplay-" His voice is full of adoration. His head tilts down and he sees the mess we've made, his face stills, pallor flashing. I'm sure mine does something similar as he just said... juvenile foreplay, that didn't sound right to me. He hisses, "Shit."

"Are you angry with me?" I mutter as he moves off me, grabbing at the towel we'd abandoned on the floor after he'd sponge bathed me, bending off the bed.

"You should be angry with me." He explains. I sit up as he hurriedly wipes his orgasm from my chin and cheek, then to the dripping mess now unspooling from my neck and slipping down my breasts.

"Why?" Is this bad? I look up at him, grabbing at the towel to still his rushed rubbing. "Are there rules to this?" He looks at me with such uncertainty. "Meliodas, I like when you... like what I do, but I don't know what's wrong, or what I'm not supposed to do."

"So, essentially, you don't feel ashamed?" He inquires, eyes clearing of his own shame and I flush.

"Well..." I admit and his head falls forward at my uncertainty, he lets go of the towel and it falls to my lap as he touches his forehead to mine. He cradles my head as if in protection.

"I never-" He starts, sucking in a harsh breath and fisting my hair. The air changes and I know his demon mark had appeared, even without seeing his forehead, as it is currently pressed to mine, my bangs between us.

"Not this." I interject, "I liked tasting you, but you said... juvenile foreplay." It wasn't right, and I clasped my own hands at my collar bones between us as he pulls away, alarm on his face and I try to meet his eyes, to build up the nerve. "And well, I do feel ashamed about that."

"Oh." He breathed, grabbing and tossing the towel away before scooping me up. With pillows on the massive mattress he stands, kicking them against the headboard and he sits among the pile bringing me with him. Propped up there with me draped across his legs, he looks me over with a gentle face. He adjusts us to touch my face with calloused fingertips across my cheek. "I'm sorry Elizabeth," Meliodas expressed, kindness and something else soft and tender in her voice.

He doesn't elaborate and with my chest tightening, I fall into him, tucking my head into his neck and wrapping my arms around him. Juvenile foreplay... that's like kid stuff? I grow hot, burning with embarrassment. I thought of Pix, of all the girls before her, and maybe after her. He'd been through all of this before, fully coupled before and now with me, he's held back.

"Has your fever returned?" Meliodas asks tense, feeling my face and I grow all the hotter as I tuck closer into him and away from his fingers. I mumble a no and he ruefully chuckles, gripping me through the wings to hold me closer. "Please don't be upset. You've never done any of these things before, of course, we have to hit all the bases slowly. I want to go at your pace."

I processed his words, still feeling as if I was holding him back. He sounded so kind, so honest.

"What we do, if that's all we do for the rest of our lives, I would be more than satisfied. Being with you, you in particular, it's beyond anything I've ever experienced before." He's soft, his head turned to kiss the side of mine, talking against me. "What I was saying, in the throws of splooging all over your hot tongue, is that, with how intense it is being with you in the ways we are, then truly being with you is going to be... soul-crushing. I can barely contain myself as it is. Honestly, I need to go at this pace or I feel like I'll implode with how full I become, how many feelings course through me. With just a look at your wet pussy, weeping for me and my body." He shudders under me, his chest rumbling. Oh, that's not bad then.

"So, how I feel when I lose myself wanting you so," I whisper, "That's not how it feels with others?" He's silent, for a long moment, his fingers trail along my spine and wings joints at my back.

"I know it's you for me." He's tense, but his voice is purposefully calm. "I suppose... You won't know unless you experience this with someone else."

I frown.

"I've never wanted anyone else before," I confess, untucking from his neck but resting there. "Since you're the only person I've desired, having met quite a few people, doesn't that mean something?"

"It does." His voice is off but I can't place it. "Being all your firsts, it's been life altering for me." He kisses my hair, soft and sweet, over again. When his nose snuggles in, I feel much better. To make sure, I shift, scooting my behind back a bit to face him, still in his arms but at a distance.

"Promise you'll tell me if I'm not doing enough or if you need something from me because I don't know about it, if something is missing." I stare into his eyes, green and storming. I'm too determined to look away but my face burns and the urge to release our gaze is strong.

"I promise you, Elizabeth. If all we did from here to the end of time is this, laying close, nothing will be missing." He's open and my mouth drops to an 'oh' as I realize... me too. Just being with him meant so much to me. I smile, matching his lazy one and I tuck right back into our snuggling.

"Okay," I tell him. "We can still explore this uh, foreplay stuff though, right?"

"Absolutely," Meliodas affirms with vigor. I giggle, playing at the hair on the back of his neck.

"I think this is my favorite day," I tell him and his chest hums against me, vibrating. "Yeah." He whispers, relaxing into the pillows with his face next to mine. 

* * *

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! Please let me know what you think, your words make my day! Happy Friday.


	28. Belialuin

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Thank you Jesterbelle. You are a kind soul.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Belialuin

I sent off Squawks with a little note about going to Belialuin. I didn't give much information but enough to give Ludociel something to wonder about, plus I hoped the dumb bird would get lost on his way back to me. It would be like a vacation from my actual obligations to my clan, although I was already doing that by being here to an extent.

I would have to go back, and where would Meliodas fit into my life then?

Estarossa nosed at my hand on my thigh and I wiped at my tears with the other. "Don't worry." I tell the pup, "We'll figure it out." I know he had no idea what I was talking about, he only had some understanding that I was upset. Of course, he was coming with us to Belialuin. He'd been easiest to pack for since he didn't need anything outside of water and food.

Meliodas and I packed last night. It felt intimate having left half my clothes here with the dresses he'd given me. Like this was my home, his closet, mine too. He had a few more things to settle and sadly, I was stuck here in his rooms. No one came in here, they knew not too, but with my nervousness, I wished I could go see Mina or Polly. I thought the castle would be safe but Meliodas said he wasn't sure where the Commandments would appear and that seeing a goddess in their territory would be enough of a reason for them to attack.

He'd outlined every one. What they looked like, what their commandment was and how they got their powers. He'd told me some things before but this time, he was armoring me with as much information as he could. Fearing a situation arising where I would be against one of them. I thought he may have been being overly cautious, I've got on with almost all the demons I'd met so far.

I watched out the window, nothing seemed to be going on as it looked still out there. Mornings were so quiet here. It's the night when everyone is up and crashing about. I hoped the demons I've met here would be alright, even the ones I hadn't. The atmosphere feels different and my tummy rolls uneasily.

A soft knock sounded a moment before the door opened and in came Mina, actual clothes on and I smiled, meeting her in the middle of the room and clasping hands with her.

"Lord Master requested I attend to you." She said, head tilting to the side as if wondering what she could do for me, a hint of confusion.

"I wanted to see you," I tell her. "I can't leave here, with the Commandments back." She understands, eyes widening in fear from the mention of them.

Mina's grip on my hand increased in pressure. "What are you going to do?" We moved to the chairs as we talk and I don't tell her much, just that I'll be leaving soon. She's sad I'll miss Polly giving birth as 'Newborn Demons are so cute'. I laughed, thinking anything as a newborn was adorable. She can't stay long and too soon, we're hugging goodbye and she promised to pass on my farewells to Mr. Millian, Polly, Pip, and Pix if I don't see her before I go. There were others but those were the ones Mina would have consistent contact with.

"I'll miss you." Mina muttered me "Thank you, for everything and... I wish things were different." I smiled, tears welling.

"It will be!" I told her, determined. "The most important thing is achieving peace between our clans. I will do everything and anything to stop another war." We have a tearful goodbye. She stayed as long as she could and I knew she didn't want to go when she did.

After she's left, I turned, taking a few steps back into the room when the door opened again. I smiled, knowing it's Meliodas. I could sense his aura. "You're back!" I exclaimed, rushing to hug him and we embrace, holding each other as if we'd been separated for days and not mere hours. I rested my cheek on his head and he nuzzles against my collarbone.

"We have to go." He pulled away to gather the two bags stacked by the door and adjusted the position of his sword on his back. "Come on pup, stay close, Elizabeth."

"Right." I gave a quick last look around, saying goodbye internally as I followed Meliodas out. It's quiet and I hold on to Meliodas' shoulders as I followed him. We take a new route, heading away from the entrance. I thought we'd be leaving but it seemed like we were going deeper into the castle. I'd been all over and I wondered where we were heading. A few more turns and I knew it is to the experiment room, where weird jars and strange equipment were. I'd never been inside but Mina and I passed the room when the door had been open a few times.

A girl was in there, one I'd seen before, paws for hands and a wide ear to ear slit for a mouth. Pink hair sprouted from her head, and her short stature made her look almost childlike. "Oh, Lord Master, is it time already?" She cooed, her paw moving in a mock, slow swipe as if he had just complimented her too much.

"Peronia," Meliodas stated blandly in greeting. I gripped his shoulders, stepping closer and he called the dog over, who stopped at his feet, between us and the demon girl.

"The girl isn't part of-"

"Don't test me." Meliodas left no room for questions. He turned to reach around my waist and pulled me against his side, opposite the bags and moving around the hilt of his blade secured to his lower back. I adjusted, still holding his shoulders and looking at the little demon. She could use teleportation magic? Peronia sighed, sashaying over to the wall where a cloth drapery hung. Rows of shelves were on either side of it, a table with shackles to our right and a tub to the left. Between us and the drapery were strange etchings on the wooden floor.

The hairs on my arm rose, my inner warnings flared to life and feeling that way about magic, Belialuin would be more unsettling than this, judging from Meliodas description of the place.

The little demon's paws pulled the curtain back, it shimmered and behind it was a glass wall, with darkness swirling inside it with a figure? Shadowed and distant, it looked like the silhouette of a sitting man. It grew closer and when a light flashed briefly behind the man I could see chains binding him, crossing before the glass and stretching on into the distance in every direction.

A prison? A magic one? Or one in another realm?

"Meliodas!" The man inside the glass said, gliding in the chair. The closer it came the more I could make out, there were wheels on the seat. Was he shackled to a wheelchair or needed one? Everyone called Meliodas Lord, or Master or some version of it, this man called him by his first name. I flushed, telling from the man's tone that he was pleased to see him. "You've not visited in some time."

"Leave us." Meliodas ordered, and the pink haired demon whined, leaving with slow dragging feet. When the door shut behind her, he relaxed his grip around me. "Gowther, this is Elizabeth." He took my hand and together we walked to the glass, across the etchings. It was surreal as he said, "Elizabeth, this is Gowther."

"Forgive me for not standing." The man quipped as he came into view, demon mark under his right eye, blonde hair, gray eyes, and a goatee. He smiled and Meliodas laughed, looking into the prison.

"Oh. No please." I flushed, waving at nothing, releasing Meliodas "It's nice to meet you." He returned the greeting, smiling so kindly at me. Gowther turned his kind face to Meliodas and said, "I've been worried, you've not visited in some time."

"I'm sorry this isn't a social visit," Meliodas explained, putting his hand to the glass and the darkness inside pressed back so far it looked like a vast cavern of nothingness inside and the man, Gowther, relaxed with a long peaceful sigh. "We don't have long. Elizabeth is the daughter of the Supreme Deity." I flinched, seeing Gowther have a similar reaction. Meliodas must trust this man very much to tell him what he had expressly barred as the utmost secret. "We're going to Belialuin, to find Merlin and persuade her, but her decision will sway the tide of power between us."

"You have other reasons for going," Gowther said, leaning forward, elbows on his knees and Meliodas starts nodding in agreeance. "I can see it now..." He looked between us. "I wanted to send Gowther, but if you are going in his stead, that's acceptable." Send Gowther? I thought this was Gowther? Confused I looked to Meliodas but he was smiling at the man in the prison.

"You have a plan?" Meliodas inquired, and Gowther had no reaction at all, making Meliodas laugh. "Good, the smaller the circle the better. My priorities have shifted, anyways." I'm not sure why but both the demons looked at me and I flushed, mind blanking as if suddenly asked to speak in public. I didn't have anything to contribute here.

"Good luck, Meliodas." The man lamented, raising his hand toward us. "It was nice meeting you, Lady Elizabeth."

"You too, Gowther." Meliodas urged and for a second everything blurred. I flailed, latching on to Meliodas in fear but he was solid and here, and my racing heart calmed. The world unblurred and we were somewhere else. A mountain loomed before us and Estarossa growled, haunches up as he prowled at our feet. He'd lost his puppy fat, edging into adulthood but how this dog acted now, you would think he were master of his pack.

Trees were to our back, the sky overhead sparking, a clear film that reminded me of the perfect cube. We'd traveled far. I just knew. "Wow." I whispered and a muffled "Hhizabeff" Sounded from Meliodas. I looked down, realizing just how tightly I had clung. Even my legs were wrapped around him, my breasts suffocating his face.

"Oh, sorry." I stepped down, disentangled myself, flushed as he grinned at me. "I've never done anything like that before." My heart was still racing.

"First time? Hm." His features melted and his eyes grow heated. "I can't help but get excited, a naughty thrill, every time you say it." Oh. He adjusted the bags to his shoulder, taking my hand and turned to walk left, around the mountain.

"Gowther," I had so many questions, why was he stuck there? Was that a prison? What did Meliodas mean about having different priorities? but instead I said: "He's a good friend of yours."

"Yeah, the best one. Before I met you, we'd debate on ways to end the war. His views are much more passive and I see now, he is right. Manipulating and forcing, it won't work, or only work temporarily."

"So, you did want to end the war before we met," I said, grinning. I knew it.

"Of course, it's pointless to destroy each other." He looked around, then smiled softly, growing somber. "Doesn't change the fact that I set out to manipulate and use you for my own goals, regardless that your goals were in accord with mine. Not to mention how I planned to use your body."

"Well, I think it matters." I muttered, "and you use my body anyways." I joked. He didn't smile, just trudged us on and I frowned. "Meliodas... wouldn't it make sense, when I approached you in the beginning that I was persuading you to aid me? It's along the same vein, isn't it? So I'll share this burden with you."

Stunned, he stopped, looking up at me with wide, storming eyes.

"Whatever we have to do, to accomplish our goals, we'll do it together, yeah?" Slowly, his half grin spread. We started moving again, silent. I felt connected to Meliodas, not only with our ideals being in line but with more than that. I had more feelings for Meliodas than I'd ever had for another person.

He liked me, I knew that. He'd shown me in so many ways but, with how he spoke sometimes, and what I myself have seen... we both knew this was temporary. I thought of Lady Graelle then, her words long ago about having a love she couldn't have, so she decided to live on her own. If I couldn't have Meliodas, would I do that? Or would I settle for a lesser feeling of affection?

Either way, I'd carry my feelings, deeply and silently. It would just hurt us, to express ourselves with the inevitable crash awaiting our relationship. Our duties to our clans, we belonged to different Realms, for heaven sakes. A shiver shot up my spine, and I frowned, watching Estarossa stop. That's when I noticed it. We were before the city limits, the dark towers, homes, and buildings built on the side of the small highland. The architecture looked like it angled with the slope of the land, or as if the land had been pushed to raise the city up.

With the mountains around it, you wouldn't be able to see it from a distance. It was perfectly placed to stay hidden. Meliodas released my hand, arm out before me, keeping me behind him. My adrenaline coursed. Something in me said 'danger is near' but with subtle sparks of influence urging us to turn around or go in another direction.

"Do you... feel that?" I whispered, sensing something different than I've ever before.

"Yeah." He whispered back. Our dog jumped, running back at full sprint to skid to a halt. He spun his tail to us, shoulders down and braced as if about to attack. He too stayed silent.

We were still, waiting like this for long full moments, the magic consistent. The trees rustled with the wind and howled through the mountains. I sparked my magic, pulling it to my hand and slowly sank into a fighting stance. The tension rose, my breaths growing shallow and tight. "If it gets bad, run." Meliodas insisted.

"No." I declared, simple and firm. "Unless you run with me." I amended, not looking at him as I didn't want to turn away for a moment.

"Heh." He scoffed, still as stone. "Even with your naturally docile disposition... You're still stubborn when you want to be." He muttered.

"I save it for the important stuff." I joked tensely, inching closer and rotating to the right, so my back covered his just that much more. He chuckled under his breath.

"And the bedroom." He retorted, and I flushed, wondering when I had been stubborn there? "In the bath." He explained "and with the sponge. And when you seemed so determined to taste me... I'm still reeling."

"Now is not the time." I chided, my face on fire as I gave the space around me an exacerbated look as I wouldn't turn from where the danger seemed to be coming from. "And how can you point fingers Mr. 'I've decided it's time for your first orgasm' and then you do it without any explanation of what that would be like!"

"You brought me to swim, alone, stripped naked and you dived. Dived. The sight of your bare ass curving through the mist, the hint of bare pink poking through that sweet triangle gap in your thighs, it was obvious-"

A loud pop cracked through the air and in unison the two of us shifted in the direction, seeing a single cloaked figure. Magic radiated from whoever it was and with slow movements of their robbed hands, the hood was lowered. An old man, gray hair and wrinkles on his face stared at the pair of us.

"A goddess and a demon, together." The man's voice was rough with age, his words a mix between a statement and a question, but marked with heavy disbelief. Somehow, meeting his eyes, I knew we would be fine and I reabsorbed my magic, standing. The old man's blue gaze widened, surprised at me and looking to Meliodas as if to see what he would do. He didn't relax.

"It's a little strange, huh? With how things currently are." I noted kindly, smiling. "I'm Elizabeth, and these two are Meliodas and Estarossa." I waved over the dog and the demon.

"I'm Edmund, the chief here." The old man, with his forehead wrinkling, met my gaze again and his magic dissipated. The threatening aura was gone. Meliodas looks lost as if a pending fight had never been nipped in the bud like this when such power had already been displayed. I touched his hand, his outstretched giant broadsword swings up to rest on his shoulder, grip still firm. "If you are here for what I think you are here for, I think we may have a way to help each other."

Chief Edmund explained about their leader, having gone too far with an experiment and no amount of counter curses nor druid assistance will bring her forth from her madness. If I agreed to do all I could for her, then he would sanction us to stay in the city while we researched our own problem- how to balance our counteracting magic. Counteracting magic? I must have looked confused and Edmund took pity on us, "I'm assuming you're having difficulty conceiving. I've never heard of a demon-goddess, and I don't see how a child from the two would ever be created but if that's your wish..."

Woah! My hands flailed from alarm.

"No," Meliodas spoke, for the first time, grim. "Our goals are much loftier than conception."

"I doubt we can help you then." Edmund looked thoughtful, lifting his hood back up and I knew he would be leaving soon. Threads of his magic were sparking around him. "Still, our deal stands, if you want to pointlessly explore that vein of knowledge I won't stop you, the price is still the same- Save our Leader Yesmeralda."

Meliodas didn't say a word, but with one look I knew what he was telling me. I smiled, soft, realizing I knew him very well to understand him from his expression. He worried I wasn't well enough after my fever. I'd woken up yesterday, still warm but so much better. Meliodas didn't trust them; he didn't want this man to know I am weakened.

When Meliodas finally relented from my stare, his eyes swirling, I bent to kiss him and when I pulled away he rose up to keep us connected a second longer. "I agree, I'll try my best to help, but I want your guarantee we can stay as long as we want, and leave when we want as well." His hood dipped, and in a sudden flash, we were teleporting again.

"Gah!" I yelped, as unexpectedly, Meliodas pulls me to him, his hands each at a different thigh to wrap them around his waist and he tucked his face to my chest. He's firm as he held me to him. "I wasn't scared that time!" I scolded, but a soft 'nish, nish' laugh sounded from him into my breasts. I saw his sword, our bags and our pup around his feet. I flushed as a woman started screaming.

"Intruder! Uninvited guests in the house of Grenalds!" I turned, seeing a waif women, in a long stained nightdress and stringy hair a mess around her shoulders and down her back. "The flames eat at the sun and no one is alarmed!" She screamed, hands raised as she bows to the double doors to our right. Oh. my.

Estarossa whimpered and I think he had it about right, I feel the same little guy.

"Elizabeth," Edmund hushed, and I look across the round tower room. The ceiling pointed, vaulted with braces, the walls were bordered with a strange string of written words in another language, the floors dusty at the edges but clear in the center. A four poster bed stood out among shelves and shelves of books and scrap papers, both strewn about on every surface. The bench had stacks of loose paper, the chair and couch didn't have a spot for a single person to sit from the clutter of... notes? "This is Lady Yesmeralda Grenalds."

With reluctance, Meliodas released me, taking in the room and acting nonchalant as he strolled around. His arms came up, hands at the back of his neck, watching the crazy woman but pegging the old man as the real danger, roaming closer in his direction.

"Lady Yesmeralda?" I asked, seeing that Edmund wasn't making a move to help me beyond dropping me in here. There was no response, no recognition. She'd known there were intruders and she knew where the door was. I could tell she'd been calling for help in her own twisted way. Yesmeralda expected someone to come to her aid. I walked to her, stepping on diagram sketches and ripped notes. Before her, I offered her my hand. "Take it."

She doesn't respond. "Sometimes, when I go through my fevers, I can't distinguish between dreams and reality. I've seen things that weren't there. It's scary, but I always have help, people that care for me. I'd like to try to help you."

"The clocks tick in time... time... time..." I frown. Lady Yesmeralda was blank but her voice was chilling.

"A made up concept?" I guessed, grasping at straws to understand. She continued. Her voice bouncing as if to a metronome.

"Take a dip, the water's cold but alive." I sighed. Maybe I am giving her too much credit. She could just be spouting nonsense and if these people, who studied constantly, couldn't find a reason in her speech what chance did I have? Still, I knew she was in there. I waved a hand over her torso. "Wet, you're soaked in time, time, time."

"Sorry about this," I reached up fast to touch her forehead and just as my fingers make contact, her hand was gripping at my forearm, angry. It's too late, my healing magic had taken hold and we freeze as I fall into her insides. I shivered, groaning from the strain. It was cold, the goop like darkness sloped like water and time was still.

She'd been warning me. I felt with my magic, spreading my light and I knew instantly what experiment had gone wrong. Yesmeralda had been attempting to stop her ageing. What a bold thing to attempt. "Why would you want to live forever?" I whispered, the words echoing into nothingness as if I'd yelled into the deepest of wells.

I walked, the muck sticking to my feet and I frowned, the same view for miles and miles. My chest tightened and I sucked in a breath, I could see my exhale. It had gotten colder, much, much colder. Any change seemed good at this point and I followed the chill, fear gripping at my insides. The mud clung, my feet heavier and heavier until I slowed to a snail's pace. This magic wanted to keep me and the deeper I went the more I wondered, why fight this?

"Meliodas." I said, reminding myself the reason I needed to do this, what I had to return to. My light magic focused my mind clearer. Heavily, I pulled from the slime. "Meliodas." I said, firmer, and my thoughts focused. I repeated it, a mantra and it helped me fight the sticky magic.

The muck couldn't touch me, the darkness receded, my light illuminating the place as it wasn't able to take me over. I followed the cold trail for seemingly miles and it led to a girl, naked and coated in dark goo. She laid before me in the fetal position as if still trying to protect herself while already succumbed.

"No." My mantra stopped when suddenly the world under me shifted and everything was lost. For a moment a scream wrenched from my throat, painful in its pitch and my throat protested the abuse. Just as suddenly, the floor returned, the scene just as I left it.

"The flames eat at the sun..." I whispered, the girl was covered, like a swamp monster. The portion of her that should be her chest had its own dark glow. An orb shape, with a dark flame bouncing around. As I approached the mud fought me, sticking and clinging. "Time." I whispered, trying to piece this together. My spirit touched her, mirroring my body and as our connection was made I'm thrown back, gasping in pain but stifling it. "Flames." Tears stung in my eyes and I rushed back.

I removed every fleck of slime, I surrounded the woman with light, pushing back the darkness, purging it, and the black flame hissed ominously. It burned. An endless flame untouched by time. Did I destroy it? Would it harm her? "The flame eats at the sun." It's meaningless. You needed time to live, was the flame a replacement? A new magic to burn in its stead? It was the source of the slime. I watched as it dripped a brown splat between us.

The core of the flame was the unnatural source of her madness.

I didn't touch her spirit, I touched the flame and that same scream ripped from my throat, hoarse and violent. It burned, the flesh at my hand licking away but I funneled my purge into it, feeling it weaken. The pain receded and in a snap, I am back in the tower room. Instantly, my hand was ripped away from the woman's forehead and I am forced back, away.

Meliodas was before me, brows pinched while checking me over. His hands feel at my flesh, lifting my arms and under my wings as if taking a tally. My hand was unmarred, no damage and I flushed, hoping I hadn't said anything out loud when I'd been connecting to her spirit. "Oh, stop," I insisted, grabbing at Meliodas to get him to quit. He was just as bad at Estarossa, who circled me just as warily.

"I know where I went wrong," Yesmeralda spoke, her voice low and I flushed, my hands on Meliodas' shoulders tense. "I know how to correct for the variables. Oh, hello Edmund, and... who are you two? Wait, I remember you!" I didn't look away from Meliodas, his eyes clearing from black to green and I hoped he understood. He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around my waist and exhaling a long low breath in relief?

"You... actually did it," Edmund marveled, I barely register that they start discussing having a go at another attempt. My arms snake around Meliodas' shoulders and I spoke low.

"Time isn't a source of power, so replacing it with one won't work," I told them, wishing I hadn't spoken as Yesmeralda, with her dirty nightgown and stringy hair gathers a notebook and a pencil. She approached me as if to interview me and I knew I would refuse her. Living forever sounded like a curse, I couldn't aid that. "I'm sorry, but no." I tensed against Meliodas, wanting to leave.

"Oh, yes, you're probably exhausted." She snapped her fingers and when nothing happened, she looked to the door of the room with concealed anger. "Edmund, I task you with housing them in two of the solitary study shelters. My guests in my pursuit."

"Yes mam, I'm glad to have you back," Edmund replied and the two shared a hug, more platonic then ours as Meliodas' hands find their way over my behind.

"We'll just need one." Meliodas said, "the most secluded one."

"Really?" Yesmerald asked, her voice pitching high. "A demon and a goddess? Of course your both welcome but, together?" I flushed, as she continued "oh, the contradictory power, yeah that would be a problem." Would everyone assume we were trying to have a baby?

"They aren't here for that," Edmund chimed in. "I'll return to explain." He gave us a warning for the teleportation and Meliodas didn't release me. In a little blur, of which I was mostly used to by this third time, we arrived somewhere else. A moment later our bags, his sword, and Estarossa joined us. Edmund pointed to the little round hut covered in white stucco with a round pointed black roof.

Meliodas let go of me as I turned to look about. Other huts were in the distance. A row of them to the left, seeming to curve with the city's edge and with space between each. We were the last one, as the row ended to woods and the mountain peaked behind it. Edmund pointed out the well pump down the line to the left and the woodpile for fires. "This one isn't used too often as most of the researchers that need solitude want to be closer to the water. There is a wait list for those."

Edmund opened the door of the hut and I picked up our bags, heaving with the weight of Meliodas'. He laughed, taking it from me, our hands brushing one another's and I grew warm. Inside, everything was in one open room. A full bed, a desk with empty shelves on either side, a dusty fireplace with a few pots hanging on the wall above it and a set of chairs. The few windows were letting in the only light in here and it smelled stale.

"Thank you," I addressed Edmund but he waved it off.

"No, no, thank you. I'm sure Yesmeralda will come up with a reward for your efforts. That was some display of power." I flushed briefly, while he asked if we need anything and he promised to send a basket of food along while we got settled. As soon as he was gone I opened all the windows, Estarossa jumped on the bed and to the chairs.

"You're okay?" Meliodas asked, helping me take the blankets outside to shake, taking the opposite corners.

"Yeah, I think I'm done with fevers." I announced, hopefully. "I say that every time but I honestly feel good, and my power, it's like it receded from the shores and it's already rushing back." He smiled, the dust floated between us.

Meliodas must not have cleaned anything before as he mirrored whatever I did while helping me. I snuck little grazes of my body to his whenever I walked around him and with the place being so small, it took no time at all for it to be cleaned.

The place was raggedy, but it was nice.

"You are amazing, Elizabeth." Meliodas confessed, "I expected days of circling this place before we were approached, denied access or a fight and here you've managed to have the leader of this place owe you."

"Owe us." I corrected. "And it wasn't hard, you just have to listen, trust your gut about people." I shrugged, it was still midday and I wanted a bath from all that spirit-muck. The biggest thing in here is the pot for the fire and I couldn't fit in there. Hm. Sponge bath it was. Maybe Meliodas would help and I flushed, looking up at him.

"Oh, Elizabeth." Meliodas groaned, catching my look and his eyes darken, hand gripping at the front of his pants. How could he tell? My face caught fire and I covered my cheeks with my fingers. His grin turned wicked, before spotting the dog. "Out!" He commanded, shooing Estarossa and closing us in before setting his sights on my body, my heart raced with excitement and another emotion I didn't want to identify. Not yet.


	29. Picnic

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle Beta'd this chapter with care. Thank you for your second set of eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Picnic

We've been here a week and already I've fallen in love with the place. Everyone walked around with their noses in books or daydreaming. I didn't think a single person truly noticed me. I liked it this way, it was my first taste of people not gawking, or fussing from my birth status. Meliodas marveled too, as no one gave a third look to our mixed racial coupling. After the first shock of it, people just shrugged and didn't seem to care. We found joy in the little things. Buying food at the market was a magic affair, summoning it from their underground stores. I simply had to bring a list and my basket would be full.

Here, my gems paid for whatever we needed as Demon coins meant nothing and surprisingly Meliodas didn't seem to mind. I flushed, thinking of his praise yesterday. He'd told me I thrived in every environment I was thrown in, that I adapted easily. Reviewing where I've been, I could see his point but to me it didn't seem as grand as he implied.

I walked through the streets, the square I passed had a lecturer holding up a book as he explained his findings, taking questions from the kids listening. The language here was very harsh, but everyone I've spoken too had responded in my tongue. I looked for Merlin but she only came to the square when it was something that interested her and it must not have today. I walked on.

Meliodas knew Merlin, they met a few years back when the Demon King had needed business done with her father. This town was hidden and neutral in the war all in a pursuit to keep themselves out of it. That benefited Merlin greatly. We've become friends, mostly due to her ailing father needing daily doses of my healing to return to his normal mental state. Foolishly, he had gone to Purgatory and seeing what he had been reduced to made me appreciate Meliodas having returned sane so much more. He'd been run through and volatile but whole. Merlin wasn't sure why her father had gone, research she guessed but I felt she was too young to be the primary carer the way she was.

"Elizabeth!" I heard her yell as if thinking of her had summoned Merlin and I turned to see her yellow dress flailing about her in her rush with a box tucked under her arm. "Meliodas is looking for you!" Her dark hair was chopped around her neck and her ears pinkened as she spotted others looking over at us. "Sorry, I'm on my way to get Juju berries. Daddy said we could make cobbler tonight." She paused, stark for a moment, "if he remembers, after your treatment."

Her smile faded, eyes misting and I touched the girl's hair. I wished I could make it better for her. She'd lost her mother so young, and her father was fading. I couldn't bring him back and I was afraid these glimpses of who he used to be wasn't making it better but prolonging the suffering. But, I'd do it for as long as she wanted, because she needed all the loving moments she could get.

"I'm heading back now," I told her. "Want to join us for a picnic?" I'd gotten the idea earlier when we'd been granted passage rights in and out of the dimensional distortion around the city. My answer to Yesmeralda's 'living forever' conundrum had made her contemplative but appreciative enough to grant us boons. Meliodas had even been allowed in the library of the ancients, which was great as Merlin had just recently started going herself.

"No. I don't want to get between the two of you." Merlin giggled, and I smiled as she ran on, looking over her shoulder to say. "I'll see you both tonight!"

With a little more pep to my step, I walked toward our little hut. I passed a few more streets when a house a few blocks up went 'boom' and smoke poured from the windows and chimney. The door opened and out came a very apologetic man followed by streams of the smog. People didn't stop. "Another failed one?" Someone called out. "Eh, but that's when you learn the most." The soot-covered man called back.

I smiled. Belialuin had its quirks, but it's untouched by the war. This was what peace would look like. No troops roamed the streets, no call to arms and no broken, sobbing families. Or... I guess there were but not from killing one another, which made it different to me.

"Yo, Elizabeth!" Meliodas' voice carried through the streets. He was in a loose untucked shirt and black pants with the ties up the calves, which he never took the time to knot, strings dangled to his ankles. His hands were in his pockets nonchalant but I could tell he surveyed the explosion with assessing eyes. We smiled at one another and I took to the air to fly toward him with the basket tucked through my arm, dangling.

In the air I kissed him, hovering over the street horizontally and he met me full on. I wanted to deepen the kiss, wanting to feel his tongue on mine but I flushed and pulled away as we were in public. His face blanked when suddenly my breasts were being felt and I straightened, flying up.

His laugh brightened and he moved to stand under me to look up my dress. I had shorts on and I giggled on reflex as he sighed dramatically. I flew at his side as we make our way back to our little place. This last week had been very carefree. Lazy mornings, cooking horrible meals together, and orgasming sometimes a few times a day.

I had healed a few people here and every time I was sent home with goods. I'd managed to get a bathing tub, galvanized metal that could fit a person in it, but it took so long to heat the water I'd only done it once. Meliodas had crashed my party, squeezing in and sloshing the water out and all over our floor, but things turned sexual quickly, with our bodies pressed so close. I had been flushed the entire time we'd cleaned up the mess.

Meliodas brought books home, sometimes he read them out loud to me and asked my opinion. He was looking for something, any hint that we weren't the first goddess and demon to make this leap, strangely how to remove a curse on an animal and our main focus, a way for the war to end. Meliodas had told me he didn't have much to go off of, but many wizards in the library had recommendations for him. Limited to only texts in the languages we could read, he wasn't hopeful.

We were here for Merlin and neither of us are in a hurry to end our reprieve.

"Anything interesting today?" I asked, happy to be with him again. When we were apart it seemed time moved so much slower and I missed him terribly, sometimes to the point of worry. What would I do when our time came to an end? Every day our unknown number of remaining days, ticked down.

"I couldn't seem to focus today." He stated, sighing in contemplation. "I had other more important things I wanted to do." I frowned, wondering why he was with me if he had... oh. I flushed, dropping to my feet and looking over at him with mixed feelings.

"Would you like to have a picnic with me?" I asked, moving my mental plans from dinner to lunch.

"Yeah." He replied, taking the basket from me and holding my hand the rest of the walk. His proud expression paired with him squeezing our hands closer had me thinking of coupling, of his strong body between my slick thighs. We've been intending to for some time, with how much we clasped hands.

My heart raced at the thought, down the street and nearer our place my face and body finally cooled. In our hut, I unpacked our food to repack the basket, wrapping up the apples, cheese, a bottle of wine and bread slices. Meliodas got a blanket and we tucked it in our basket too.

"Want to find a spot in the woods behind us?" He asked. I nodded and I'm surprised he commanded Estarossa to stay. The dog listened but looked at me with big brown eyes and my heart melted. Meliodas didn't like him watching us when we were intimate and I flushed, thinking maybe he had plans for us.

We walked a while, peaceful and quiet. When the earth sloped off and gave us a pretty good view of the mountains, we spread out the blanket. I didn't bring cups or plates so we picked from the basket and shared the wine between us. Eventually, I laid on my back watching the clouds. It was a warm day, nice and I closed my eyes, soaking in the moment.

"Sometimes, I think..." I hushed, soft so as not to break the mood, "if I never met you, I wouldn't feel so peaceful spending ordinary days like this." Without any indication, not even a rustle in the blanket I felt Meliodas over me. I didn't open my eyes as I reached up with my hand and found his hip to pull him against me, our mouths meeting.

Slowly and thoroughly I kissed him, parting my lips tentatively. His elbows supported him as his hips pressed into my tummy and I felt his hardness. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted him to feel how happy he'd made me, just for being in my life. I could tell him anything, I was closer to him than I'd ever been with another soul and tears started to fall as I realized I didn't want to be without him. My lips trembled against his and he pulled away but I couldn't look, I wouldn't.

"Don't cry." He whispered, and I took a calming breath, my free hand swiping at the tears with the back of my hand.

"Okay." When I finally opened my eyes, we stared like this, for the sweetest of minutes. He knew. "No matter how this ends, I'm so glad..." I felt my chest tighten and my tears started to pool again. I exhaled to release it, unable to finish. His lips parted and eyes flashed with determination.

"We'll find a way, Elizabeth." I felt my heart expand, hope bloomed dangerously and I smiled up at him knowing he would. Meliodas could do anything. The mood shifted back as he breathed a shuddering breath. "Hmmm, when you look at me like that." He warned, dipping to nip at my ear. The hand still wet with my tears wove into his messy hair and I shivered when his warm breath tickled at my neck. "Oh, did you like that?" He asked, his lips grinned against the sensitive skin at my neck.

"You must be imagining things," I whispered, smiling.

"Let me check then," Meliodas laughed, his one hand skimmed down my side to follow up my thigh and my knees fell open. He groaned, breath at my neck and I gasped out, gripping at his shoulder. As he dipped into my shorts, creeping to my core. My breaths came in shorter bursts and my hips come up to meet his fingers, eager. "Oh, my sweet girl." Meliodas' nose brushed along the shell of my ear and he twirled his finger at my core, over my clit.

My insides quivered and I gripped at Meliodas' hair. Without any warning, Meliodas rose from me, maneuvering his knees between mine and I whimpered at the loss of the weight of him atop me. "Elizabeth." He said as if pondering, voice heady and I couldn't muster more than a 'hm?' to sound from my throat. "I'm going to taste you." Meliodas's fingers pulled away and I groaned in protest until his words registered.

"Meliodas..." I warbled, as instinctively my hands moved to cover my core. He pushed them away, gripping the waistband of my shorts at my hip and in one jerk, had my underwear and shorts to my ankles, my feet rising in the air as he pulled the bunched fabric free of me. "Gah!" I exclaimed, suddenly nervous. What if I tasted bad? I'd never taken the time to taste myself.

With my legs up by his shoulder from his panty-pull, he grabbed my ankles, placing each on opposite shoulders and I pinched my thighs closed with a yelp. "Wait!" I exclaimed and he did, hovering, his hands played at the round of my behind, getting a pretty good feel of my core with my legs up the way they were. "Is this... shameful?" I whispered, "You said before that orgasming on a face is-"

"No, no. no. Elizabeth, nothing we do together is." He explained, "I was overly cautious and I should have realized that with your innocence came a beautiful, giving, openness." I flushed, finding his assessment settled my nerves. "I should have taken better care. I was quite overwhelmed at that moment but that is no excuse." His eyes blazed with something deep, something dark and... it frightened me with the intensity. "It was something you wanted, just as this is something I want."

I kept my legs closed, pondering while staring into him.

"No shame. Not ever, not between us." His smile did me in, the easy-going soft grin that melted my heart. I haven't moved a centimeter but he could tell I've relented, eyes darkening and his softness turned wicked. We will find a way to be together and if he wanted to know this part of my body, then it's okay. I relaxed but I'm not brave enough to spread open for him. It felt too much like exposing my underbelly to a rabid lion.

He didn't seem to pay it any mind, his face pressing to my knees and his cheeks slid down my thighs, parting my legs for me. The anticipation built and I felt my core pulse, a spark of pleasure and he hadn't even touched me there yet. "Just breathe." He said, softly, his fingers reverently traced along the underswell of my behind. "Already, my hearts are humming." He whispered to my slit, hot breath playing at my lower lips as he wiggled his head to press closer to me. "This is going to shake us both to the bones... hold on."

It's his only warning before he dived in, hot breath right there. There was no slow introduction or tentative swipe of his tongue, instead, he kissed me, rough and vigorous. "Ugghn" I groaned in pure reaction, hands actually having to hold on, fisting in the blankets as my back arched threatening to leave earth altogether, my wings spread and jostled our things off the blanket. His hot tongue found my nub and the waves of pleasure crashed at my shore.

This wasn't a slow glide into the frenzy, this time he was throwing me into it with glee. The shock of it, when he had been so gentle introducing me to something new before, surged inside me like timber to a flame.

His hands gripped my hips to pull me closer. How could we get closer? The more firm his tongue lapped at me, the harsher my trembling became. My heart was trying to burst from my rib cage, my head thrashed. How was he doing that? He tongue lashed me into this wild thing. "Aaahh!" I fought it, trying to resist the pull, my thighs tightened around his face and my ankles crossed over his back. "Meliodas!" I yelled, alarmed but it was too late...

"Ohhhh!" I groaned, my orgasm ripped through me with such force I swear I felt it in my bones.

He hadn't stopped and I struggled, sitting up to tuck my core away from his searching tongue. He released me, leaning back, his shoulders sliding to rest under my knees. Lazy, half-lidded eyes met mine and I swear if he asked for my soul I would have handed it to him with a smile. Meliodas... All the things important in my life, achieving peace, Lady Graelle, my convictions and beliefs they all floated above and each anchor was hooked in him. He held my world together, he was everything.

Oh no... Oh no.

When my orgasm ebbed, my emotions reared, my empty body filling too quickly with the realization that this peace, this kindness and this pureness between us had stripped me down. Slowly, Meliodas moved my knees off him, he sweetly tucked my dress around my sopping slit and he laid beside me, my wing tugging back for him unconsciously. He rested on his side, so he could look at me with his hand under his head to prop it up.

Meliodas looked so satisfied, as if he'd orgasmed with me and I knew he hadn't. "At every opportunity, I'll steal between your legs to lap at your cream just to see you soften so sweetly like this, for me." I was still in a haze, I barely understood what he said as I stared in awe at him. "Elizabeth... Come here." His free arm opened and I flushed, slowly tucking myself against his chest to cuddle. "You okay?" He asked, sweetly, as he played at the feathers of my wings.

"Yeah." I caught my breath.

"Good." He replied, "Because that look, I need to see it again." Meliodas slipped out from beside me, my back hit the blanket and the clear sky greeted me above as he stole between my legs in a quick blink. I gazed down, raising to my elbows, dazed from his agility. His demon mark was on his forehead, had he used his magic to move that fast?

"Wait!" I rushed, too slow to slam my legs closed as he held them apart while they were still weak from spasming. He stopped, his grips on the inside of my knees and his eyes shifted from looking at my wet core to my gaze. I panicked, still too sensitive to handle that again. "We have to..." I tried to find an excuse. We literally had nothing to do and my mind was still too scattered to focus. "I don't think I can take it." I admitted, truthfully.

"Hmmm, let me show you what your body is capable of." His grin spreads along with his demon mark and from his wrist tendrils spread, trickling down my thighs as if his inner demon couldn't wait to get at me. He didn't move, waiting for me. His tone changed softly, his eyes gleaming green. "Elizabeth, you looked at me like you were mine and I need that."

"Oh."

With a gentle kiss at my knee, he lunged between my legs. I was expecting a frenzy at my nub like before, but to my surprise, he was slow. Reverent and... worshiping. His contradictions, in the demon state he was in, it made me wild. My nub was already so swollen I knew it would be no time at all that I'd lose myself to his ministrations.

The groans from Meliodas spurred me on. His hot exhales and his soft nuzzling into my core were sprinkles on this dessert. His fingers traced the curve of my ass and one of them trailed up, entering me with a plunge up to the knuckle. His other hand touched up my thigh as they pressed against his ears. "I'm..." I flushed, already glowing and there was a moment, right before it hit where Meliodas grinned. I can feel his lips against mine. With effort, I bent to look at him and his green eyes swirled with affection as he pressed a single kiss to my nub. My orgasm ignited.

I tried to keep eye contact but my back arched and with a desperate groan my neck stretched out. "Meliodas!" I called out, my hand reaching out to him and ever so sweetly, he moved his hand from my thigh to intertwine our fingers.

"Look at me." He ordered, finger curling inside of me and I twitched, overdrawn. I lulled my head to the side, unable to lift it and I could tell he liked what he saw.

He laid down, feet pushing the flowers that had bloomed from my glow flat and I'm so warm all over as his tongue darted out again, against me. He wasn't stopping? He wasn't stopping!

I couldn't handle this, everything I felt inside me crashed together in a loud crescendo, my legs shook, my body wavering into a state of uncontrollability. Shaking, throbbing and enduring the onslaught of sensations became my focus. Whatever he wanted to do, "I'm..." I whispered, instantly his eyes go black, an abyss. My hand, the one not entwined with his, grazed across my tummy with trailing sensations to weave my fingers through his hair.

Was I pushing him away or keeping him here?

That's when the rhythm changed. Gone was the soft, lapping exploration and back was the punishing Meliodas from my first orgasm. "Please... another might..." I begged, staring into him and the green sparks bleed over the black.

He was truly the rabid lion at my underbelly. "M-Melio-" I gasped in a plead for mercy, twisting to get a reprieve from the overwhelming pleasure he forced into me. My core shook, my muscles strained and I found myself making noises I didn't know I could make, an animal in agony. The sweetest agony. "It's... I'm-." In no time at all my orgasm approached, a massive brick wall I was coming towards too fast.

"You'll like it." His hot mouth hushed against my clit, eyes gleaming. My mouth opened and I tried to tell him, that if this was what he wanted, I'd try. My muscles refused to move, my hand grew limp in his grip and in his hair. I felt like I was floating. "Enjoy it," Meliodas spoke huskily as he added another finger inside me, filling me fuller and another mind-numbing orgasm blinded me. I thrashed, too sensitive as it lasted for minutes... It was too much.

"Ahhhh" I breathed. My eyelids just as relaxed as the rest of me as my legs fell open, sliding to either side of his torso in complete submission. I didn't have the energy to resist, giving into it. 'I'm yours.' my mouth moved but nothing came out in my silent admission.

"You're so soft. My sweet girl is warm clay in my hands." Meliodas mumbled against my core, eyes wicked as he pressed his two fingers deeper into me. "Do you hear me, Elizabeth?" He pulled back to blow at my sensitive clit and just from that sensation I was halfway to another. Meliodas curled his fingers forward, searching inside of me and his tongue teased the edges of my swollen nub. "You're mine."

"Okay." My voice was soft and so far away, my head rested by my shoulder to watch him work.

"You'd agree to anything right now, wouldn't you?" He smirked, eyes twinkling green and black, a dance between the two colors turned in them. "Say it then, tell me you're mine." As he spoke his fingers plunged in again, tongue flicking to my clit in the opposite rhythm so the waves never stopped, it was a crash followed by another without the receding I needed to catch my breath. I screamed, glowing from the white-hot jolt of my climax...and I forgot... everything. My mind blanked as I became the pleasure, no distinction from me and this overwhelming, nerve-frying orgasm.

I didn't think an orgasm could be more. Some were more intense, but this one... It filled me so full my tears leaked out as I couldn't hold all the sensations. Something had to escape me for some relief, to make room inside me for the ever-expanding pleasure. Through the numbness I hear his husky voice demand "Say it" and I can't think of what it was he needed but I desperately wanted to give it, to reward him for all that he gave me now. I felt alive.

The haze faded, the glow danced around me and I focused on him, my anchor in the sea of the lost. His hand holding mine kept me to the earth and the dark tendrils there had spread up my arm to my shoulder. As a warning, he flicked his wicked tongue at my core and I jerked in alarm. Not another! No! Say it? He wanted me to...

He groaned, thrusting his fingers and I quivered. "I'm yours." My voice was so thin and lost I didn't recognize myself. "I'm yours." I tried to say firmer but I'm wispy. I don't have the muscle control to stop him, nor the will to demand it. I'd found the well of pleasure between us endless and if he wanted to squeeze out every last drop from it, I'd hold on for the ride.

He took mercy on me. I'm trembling as he withdrew and though his mouth leaves my tortured flesh he stayed laying between my legs.

"Though unfair, you're mine now, you said it yourself," Meliodas quipped, my free arm flopped over my head, the grass tickling at my knuckles. He's licking my wetness from his fingers as if savoring every drop, having just tasted me for so long. I'm burning hot but watched on with fascination.

"Okay." I sounded lost.

"How many was that?' He asked with a wicked grin, letting go of my hand to push off with a 'humph' to sit up, looking like he owned the world and I think he did. His tendrils stayed tickling at my overly sensitive flesh. I didn't know what he meant, "orgasms, how many?" He clarified, watching me closely.

"I... didn't count," I admitted, still swimming internally as he looked around with a deep chuckle emanating from his torso. One orgasm had gone on for so long I think it was just a succession of them, like a string with beads dripping one after another. "I didn't know it could be like that," and he looked so cheerful my heart soared with him.

"I'd hope not." He smirked, his twinkling eyes met mine, "You've decorated the place." I broke our gaze to look, growing embarrassed. The ground was spread with colorful plantlife and the trees around us had climbing flowers growing up the trunks to the canopies. I had cocooned us in from behind. Vines of white and purple blooms hung down from the branches as if reaching for us.

I couldn't coordinate my body to sit up, zapped as I was but I bet the slope was equally as flowered. Meliodas froze, alarmed and I focused on him as he started to shuck the tendrils from me, expression darkening before meeting my eyes with a little smile. I didn't feel any danger, but his demon mark grew to a swirl, snaking down his cheek.

My finger lifted weakly to prolong my contact with the last little bit of his darkness and his eyes softened. "You're just liquid butter huh?" As if to prove it, he rubbed the back of his knuckles up my thigh. I didn't move, a pitiful little gasp escaped. "Do you know how wet you are, Elizabeth?" He asked, in such a good mood it had to be criminal.

I knew I was soaked, my thighs were chilled from the slickness and my behind could feel the pool of it under me on the blanket.

He stood, looking down at his handy work and slapped his hands together in satisfaction. He conquered me and he knew it. I smiled, so full of peace and so empty of any tension it was a miracle I felt this way while awake. "Am I... dreaming?" I asked, and if he could look any more pleased, he did at that moment.

"No... but it does feel like one." He gushed, looking for something among the flowers. Meliodas stepped off the blanket, toeing the plants aside and I watched him. The clouds lulled overhead. The breeze tickling the petals all around and the floral scent added to the peace. He bent down, picking up my shorts and returning to where he'd been between my legs. I'm limp as he, one foot at a time, put my panties on followed by the black shorts. He lifted my hips, slipping his palms over my sides and he hissed an admiring breath between his teeth, almost a whistle.

He cleaned up our mess, putting things in our basket and when it's just me and the blanket left he laid down at the edge away from me. I frowned, turning my head to look at him but he gripped the edge and rolled, wrapping us both up. He flipped on top of me, pulling me with the blanket to tangle our limbs and ending the roll with me on top of him, wrapped like a burrito. I seperated from the wet spot in this position.

We cuddled, lazy and I could feel his chest humming under me.

"Meliodas." I whispered, sounding throaty but more like myself. He hmm'd back and I rubbed my nose against his collarbone. "I could lay here with you forever," I admitted, closing my eyes.

"Yeah." He agreed, so calm and his arms around me rubbed at my sides affectionately, under my wings. "I want to," He sighed heavily, "we do have plans to see Merlin tonight." A slew of worries punctured our peaceful bubble and I moved my lips to kiss his chest, the closest available flesh.

"Do you think it's right, prolonging him like this?" I asked, my core ached when I shifted over him to lift my head. My legs shook when my swollen sex rubbed against Meliodas' leg. Even the movement of my panty fabric was too much for my abused self. I shuddered and Meliodas smiled knowingly, before meeting my gaze.

"It's what Merlin wants," Meliodas said, reassuringly. "She knows how this will end and... I understand her choice." The wind moved on, the clouds left us behind while new ones breezed in overhead. A few moments passed of blissful silence before he sighed heavily. It must be time to go. He unwrapped us, moving me with him and I smiled. Yeah, I can understand Merlin's choice too. If someone I loved would die anyway, I'd want as many moments too.

I sat up, my core was over stimulated and I flushed as my shorts rubbed me. I turned to Meliodas alarmed while tugging the fabric down so it wouldn't touch my slit.

"What's wrong, Elizabeth?" Meliodas asked, too innocently. "Let me help you up." He reached out but I hesitated to take it, afraid to stand. With how wet I was, moving would be tormenting. My wings fluttered as Meliodas helped me to my feet and I groaned, shuddering as my core begged for mercy. How did he do that? I looked to Meliodas. "Don't worry, I'll carry you."

He lifted me off the blanket, my feet cushioned on the plush flowers when he stood me off to the side. Meliodas folded the blanket, rolling it to fit in the basket on his arm. "Hop on." Meliodas said, showing me his back. I could fly, but if he was offering... I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pressed my core to his lower back when I hopped on. I flared with heat from the pressure of him between my legs and a little moan gasped out of me.

"What did you do to me?" I whispered, in awe that I could still be so affected. He chuckled, one arm wrapping around to cup my behind for support and with his other he held the basket.

"You're still aroused." He told me, his steps lighter, "I bet your clit is still swollen... mmm." He groaned, low in his throat, his hand at my ass squeezed. I moaned when I jerked against him from the unexpected contact. "It's over-stimulation, with this being your first time at it, it may take a little longer for your body to chill." He paused, his head beside mine turned, our cheeks touching sweetly. "You may be sore tomorrow. I'll bathe you after Merlin's."

"First time...?" I whispered alarmed at the thought of a repeat.

"Oh yes." He laughed, jumping over a fallen decaying log with little effort. "Don't worry, I'll give you a reprieve for now."

"Phew." I exhaled, holding him a little tighter and turned to kiss his cheek in gratitude. "Thank you, Meliodas," I whispered, thinking of so many things he'd shown me. I watched his profile as he smiled, tenderly.


	30. Bubbling Pastries

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Jesterbelle, thank you for your work on my chapters. You are a wonderful friend.

Chapter Thirty: Bubbling Pastries

Our days were lazy, filled with soft touches and easy peace. I wanted them to last forever, to stretch them. The city was so far removed from the war it was easy to fall into a state of denial. Meliodas admitted it would be so simple to wash our hands of the rest of the world, but those fantasies shattered the illusion, making it harder for both of us.

Today though, it didn't matter. Estarossa ran after a stick and Meliodas wrestled it from him. He would return it just to throw it again. We were waiting for Merlin and her father in her front yard. Her home, a two-story brick complex, was connected on either side by two other identical houses. The street was empty as the square had drawn everyone in because of its bustling activity.

"I've never been to a Festival before," I told Meliodas, excited to experience one. "The Goddess Clan did ceremonies and such but I've only ever known the world as a war zone." His spine straightened, he threw the stick and looked back at me with widened eyes.

"I... knew that, but I didn't think of it that way before." He admitted, scratching at his head over his ear. "This treaty is the first peace you've known?"

"Yeah." I smiled, "You gave me that." He looked pleased and it's so rare to see him grow pink I marveled at him. The dog barked and our shared moment popped. I looked down at my shoes. I'd worn a demon-dress today, low cut and a slit up to my thighs on either side. With a little self-conscious tug, I pulled my dress down to cover a little more, inevitably showing a little more up top.

The door opened behind me and I turned, Merlin grinned to us as she stepped down, guiding the wheelchair with the handles. Meliodas breezed by to take over and lift Gregory to the pathway over the step with a steadier control than Merlin managed.

"Thank you." Gregory's raspy voice said, his sagging face with discolored blotches twisted into a smile up at Meliodas. I waved, coming forward to take Meliodas' arm, ready to set out. Merlin pushed her father as she told us about her latest experiments and stopped to greet Estarossa with under the ear pets. "I don't know how you got so lucky," Gregory said and I looked over to see who he was speaking too.

He was doing better. The madness always eased back in. With each day I fought it, it came back quicker than the last. Gregory's beady eyes were looking at Meliodas and I flushed as Meliodas took my hand to interweave our fingers between us.

"She came to me, can you believe that?" Meliodas joked, eyes dancing with joy when he looked over at me.

"Lies!" Gregory admonished, his hand rose from the blanket in his lap to wave the absurdity away. "You should have to fight armies of men to earn your place at her side."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, my face burned as Meliodas laughed.

"Don't think I won't!" He vowed, "Now eyes to yourself old man, I don't care the shape your in!" Gregory laughed with him and I turned to Merlin with wide eyes for help or at least companionable exasperation. She shrugged, gripping the wheelchair again and pushed him down the street.

"Do you hear that, Merlin?" Gregory asked, looking back at his daughter with a smile.

"I did Papa." Merlin answered, "Sis-sis does look good. Confidence becomes her." She smirked.

"Stop talking as if I'm not here!" I huffed, wondering if I was more confident? Had the exploration of my sexuality affected how I carried myself? I looked down at my dress. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen this one today. Meliodas squeezed my hand and I met his eyes.

"You're exquisite," he spoke, and I flushed as his free hand came up to squeeze my breast.

"Young man!" Gregory scolded, more energy exuded than I've seen from him in days. Meliodas dropped his groping, my eyes wide.

"Her dress slipped, you think so low of me, Gregory," Meliodas explained, nonchalant as he started a little swing with our hands in pace with our walk.

"You name the place, sis-sis and I'll pop Meliodas there to twist in the wind," Merlin said. I giggled as Meliodas actually looked alarmed. She'd asked if she could call me sister days ago and each time I heard it my heart swelled for her. I felt the same but sorrow welled as I knew Merlin was trying to make herself a family. She was preparing for after Gregor passed.

"I'd like to keep him with me, if that's okay with you." The tables turned as I was the one squeezing Meliodas' hand in reassurance. "I'm only really happy when we're together," I admitted and Merlin beamed as Meliodas misstepped, a sloppy grin on his face as we turned down the cobblestones, toward the festival.

The noises rose, the houses closer to the square were decorated with paper lanterns and fluttering strings of shining shapes. Carts were set up, people in costumes were walking on tall stilts and over the crowd, I could see flames shooting into the air. I tried to take all the colors in, the lights and the smells but I couldn't pin everything down as it blurred together into one mosaic of excitement.

We entered the crowd, Meliodas pointed out a demon costumed man with black streamers waving from his arms and I giggled, leaning into Meliodas.

"Nice wings!" A little boy said at my hip dressed as a lizard of some kind as he reached up to feel the feathers. "They look a little like Chickens Wings but I get what you were going for." His hand brushed over my small second wing and it fluttered straight, out of his reach. They were intimate parts of me and I didn't like strangers touching them. "How'd you get the- Oh!" He froze, looked up at me and then to Meliodas. Realization struck in the boy and he ran, full hilt, away.

'Chicken wings?!' Was that what people thought!?

"Ignore him, he's an idiot," Merlin rebuked. Her father pointed to a stand with a shaking finger.

"You have to try the bubbling pastries. We're known for them." Gregor declared as Meliodas released my hand to rub it up and down my back, between my wings which are not at all like a fowls. "Come on, we can grab one for everyone. Let me Merlin." He took the chair, pushing it through the crowd and Estarossa followed, probably interested in the food smells.

"Oh! Look!" Merlin spoke, taking my hand and weaving me toward the fire dancers. The entertainer had a hoop that twirled with pockets of flames moving with his body. A roar sounded and I turned from the spinning fire swords to look at a multi-person dragon, stilts under each leg. I tugged at Merlin, she looked too, eyes aglow with joy. This was how she should be, a happy little girl.

She reminded me of myself at her age. I had been alone at Charity's home, different from the other kids from my birthright and wishing I had a family. I was glad we'd grown so close in our time together and I tucked her into my side with a hug, kissing her unkempt hair with all the love I could muster. We glowed in the crowd, a few people gasping at us as Merlin peered up at me.

"I bless you, Merlin." I hushed her, touching each of her cheeks to press my lips to her forehead this time, "to always be loved." Her eyes shone and after a breath, my tone changed. "By me, obviously," I explained and she laughed, taking my hand to pull me among the crowd.

"Let's find our family!" Merlin beamed and I flushed, looking across the masses and finding Meliodas so easily, his green eyes already on me. Her words bounced in my brain, 'Family...'

Meliodas handed me a pastry while Gregory passed one to Merlin. At first bite, I covered my mouth in alarm. The bubbling pastries fizzed in my mouth! It's good, but the sensations are different than I expected. Although, the descriptor 'bubbling' should have given me a clue.

Meliodas chuckled with his first bite, his nose wrinkling up. He grinned at me as he offered to trade. I swapped my berry one for his lemon one and it fizzed too, tasting tart but sweet. I liked his better and I smiled at him.

"Hold your breath, Merlin!" Gregor panicked, "You can't ever come here!" He yelled and I went to Gregor putting my hand to his head to refresh his mind. "Endless pelting sands... poison..." He mumbled and Gregor flailed, knocking my pastry from my hand and Meliodas was there to assist, holding him steady. I dosed him with his sanity. In a flash of my light, he was back and looking up at me with gratitude, his skin slick with sweat.

He felt plastic inside, like a paste rather than solid matter. With tears brimming I met his bleak gaze. Gregor wasn't long for this world. Death had its grip and it was too much for me to release him from its closing fist. "Thank you, Elizabeth," Gregor said, putting on a face of strength. Meliodas released him and stepped away with me. Gregor pointed in the distance, past my shoulder, hand miraculously steady but covered in age spots. "Let's find a good place to sit for the fireworks."

Merlin shook it off, pointedly ignoring the crowd that had left a circle of open space around us, some staring while others tried to avert their eyes to be respectful. She pushed past, and I clasped my hands to my chest, still shaking. I watched them go and my tears fell. Then Meliodas stepped in my line of vision, expression open and kind.

"Want to go home?" He asked. I wiped at my face, putting a smile on so we would not lose the evening.

"After the Fireworks," I told him, voice dropping to a whisper as I leaned into him. "I've never seen them before and I'm expecting fire that moves on its own!"

He laughed and my smile turned genuine. "It's more like... well, I guess you'll see."

"Sounds like you, to give no warning and just throw me into a new experience," I joked, taking his hand to pull him after Merlin but he chuckled, unmovable and I ended up bouncing back to him. With my face this close, he turned, stealing a kiss and I reciprocated, relaxing. He parted his lips, tongue flicking out and I pulled away. "Come on," I muttered to him and he let me pull him along this time. I smiled at him over my shoulder, his own smile soft and my insides warm. Not at my core but in my chest.

We sat by Gregor and Merlin, both talking to one another with laugh lines evident until a whistle rang though the air. Meliodas caught my attention and pointed to the sky. A boom sounded, so unexpected I flinched, my hands gripped at Meliodas' forearm as colors rained down from the explosion in the night sky.

"Oh." I eased my grip, awed as another shot and sparks flew. "Magic?" I asked, not looking away and Meliodas answered softly "Not necessarily. It's black powder on a fuse." Another exploded, cascading down and I covered my mouth which formed an 'o'.

"But... the colors," I marveled and he chuckled. "Salts and metal chlorides," Meliodas further explained and I was more amazed it wasn't magic. "Woah," I hushed, blown away.

"Woah, indeed," Meliodas said, a tone he usually used after he came or when we talked after intimacy. I flushed, turning to look at him and he's already watching me. I grew hot, my hand fell from my face as we stared.

"Let's go home," I whispered, smiling as he curiously tilted his head. We shared our goodbyes to Merlin and Gregor. Estarossa stayed, head on Merlin's lap and she scratched his ears. The others around us did not pay us any mind, so engrossed with the booms and I watched while we walked. Outside of the festival, the commotion faded as the distance grew, the streets empty. It was a little unsettling being on a dark street without anyone else around.

My own floating city had been like this, vacant of people as almost everyone participated in the war and lived on the military bases. The war touched each place differently. Such as the demon city, where children had been starving in the streets or forced to fight among themselves for scraps. I shook my head, taking Meliodas' hand in comfort, to remind myself what I had.

"What are you thinking about?" Meliodas inquired and I looked over, his green eyes were comfortably warm. I didn't want to worry him, but I liked our honesty and I wouldn't betray it.

"I can almost pretend that it will always be like this," I answered and watched his eyebrows furrow and head tilt as he tried to figure me out.

"Like what?"

"Perfect." I replied. I imagined the two of us untouched by our duties, just living normal lives. I smiled when I saw the rows of huts in the distance.

"Yeah." Meliodas agreed, we walked between the homes for a shortcut, across the divide and towards our allotted little place. Sometimes I could still pick up the fragrance of the flowers that had bloomed so heavy from his deep kiss to my core, and as the wind tickled at our hair, I could scent it all the stronger. I flushed, wanting to kiss him like that too, but I haven't been brave enough to initiate it.

Inside, he started the fire and I built up my nerve. After everything we've done, I should be more comfortable with this, but it's new and Meliodas had set the bar pretty high when it came to kissing down below. As if I could make him as crazy as he made me with repeated orgasms. Could guys even do that over and over? It didn't seem like it? Although it's not like we've gone beyond more than one or two orgasms per bout when we did explore one another.

His back was to me, on one knee as he blew on the coals and added a log. The flames kicked up, sizzling started from the moisture on the wood and as if he knew I was staring at him, he looked over his shoulder to me. His smile spread when he saw me.

"Can I kiss you?" I asked and I watched him move. He was strong and graceful as he stretched. I tentatively stepped forward but he reached, face angled up to grant my request. I stopped him. My palms rested on his chest as I stuttered. "Not... uh..." I shook my head, gripping his shirt and pressed my lips softly to his. Butterflies took flight in my tummy and I'm not sure if it's the little kiss or my nerves. I pulled away. "I want to kiss you here."

I dropped to my knees, sitting on my heels as I reached for the ties on his pants.

"Oh!" Meliodas exclaimed and his reaction made my hands shake harder as I pulled the knot free. Did I surprise him or did he not want this so soon? I ceased, fingers grazing his waistband to look up at him and from just that, he groaned and I didn't know what I did but I knew that noise meant he liked it.

"You'll have to guide me. I want to make this good for you." I whispered, his lips parted and Meliodas' face went blank. I saw his hands shake as they lowered to his sides from their frozen position near where my face had been when standing a moment ago. They closed into tight fists and his knuckles went stark white. Meliodas' erection strained before me. "I'm so nervous my stomach is all aflutter," I confessed.

I think he's in shock as he didn't say a word and I flushed. I turned back to his dick and licked my lips. I knew what he liked when I touched him, and when he thrust between my breasts. I had a general plan of exploring him with my mouth. He would tell me what he liked just from his reactions and when I pulled his pants down his dick bobbed free. With my hands on his ankles, I grazed my cheek against him, kissing the innermost part of his thigh. He exhaled softly.

"You'll tell me if I do something wrong?" I faltered, feeling up his legs like he did to me and I could see why he did this. The muscles of his calves were tight and I enjoyed feeling them. My core tingled a bit and I grew warm.

"You can't do this wrong, with my cock in your wet little mouth..." Meliodas groaned, his tone of voice made my face burn and instinctively my eyes shot to his, scandalized. "I mean, you don't need to worry, this is going to be indescribable." He amended, his green orbs swirled with kindness and emotions. Right. Okay.

I was burning hot when I focused back at his hard member. I'd never been intimidated by his size before, as my hand could almost reach around him and my breasts could take him. But with my mouth... I realized with a jolt, that I wouldn't be able to get him all in. That's bad, right? 'I don't know.'

Softly, I placed a little kiss on the tip of him, feeling him with my lips. I leaned away an inch, flicking my tongue out to lick at him. I've tasted him before and with a rush, my core grew slick. Did I like this? I squirmed, kissing along his shaft, up to the dip of the v between his hips. I couldn't seem to help myself as I brushed my fingertips over his veins from base to tip, opposite where I kissed. He grew harder, his muscle here firm under his soft skin when I tentatively licked up under him, partially around his shaft.

I switched sides, repeating my movements and as if in anticipation of me curling my tongue around him, his breathing changed as I flicked under him again. With a kiss to his sack, I wrapped my hand around the base of him and I positioned his tip at my lips. My other hand resting at the swell of his hip. I could do this. I looked up, nervous and he stopped breathing as the head of his dick entered my mouth.

"You realize..." Meliodas gasped out with a husky voice. "This is the first time my cock's been inside you." My core pulsed at his words. My tongue explored his head and my hand wrapped at his base moved on reflex- I knew what to do to please him. He tasted like Meliodas, fleshy and warm. I moaned, my hand falling from his hip to cup my own sex for some reprieve. He tilted to the side. He groaned so low I thought for a split moment it was Estarossa's growl.

I'm awkward, Meliodas seemed to be enjoying himself, but he had too much girth. It took me a full second to realize I should suck. When I did, he slid in easier. The muscles of his torso stretched and I gazed at him, his head was thrown back. I could fit him better and I pushed forward. He touched the back of my tongue. He groaned and I rubbed myself through my panties to relieve the building tension at my core.

I moved my mouth like I would my hand, letting go of myself to touch his thigh, up to his sack as I knew he liked when I cupped them. My rhythm improved and I felt more confident. Tentatively, I pressed him to my throat, just to see and he reacted from its first contact. His thighs tensed and his groan sounded low and long. "Fuuuck, Elizabeth." He exhaled, unclenching his fists to brush his fingers to barely touch my hair over my ears before he clenched them at his sides again.

Was he okay? Concerned I assessed him. His eyes were pinched closed, his lips parted for his pants to escape, his head lolled forward. When his eyelids parted, his dark orbs were unfocused, I smiled around him and his mouth twisted, the one side curved up farther than the other.

I didn't gag, so I tried it again, pressing a little deeper each time and when he's pulsing I increased my pressure. I moved my hands to rest on either side of his hips. I wanted to feel him as deep as I could take him. With a steadying breath through my nose, on my plunge forward I held his hips to pull myself forward, tongue stiff as he hit the back of my throat.

It's uncomfortable but he gave a surprised gasping moan, paired with his hands lightly cupping my head, I knew I'd do it again for this response. So I added it to the rotation when I found my rhythm. Suck, lick his head when I retreated, stiffen my tongue on the approach, groan when he was in deep and after three of those, add a deep throat.

I pulled away, his tip in my mouth as I gripped his shaft to ask, "You'll cum in my mouth, right?" I hoped he'd say yes and the hands on my head fisted my locks in their grip.

"Abso-fucking-lutely." He hushed, chin pointed to the ceiling. "Anything you want... name it, it's yours." He muttered and I flushed all the way to my core. My nipples hardened from his throaty tone. 'Oh.' I resumed my efforts, increasing my pressure, sucking a little harder and I squeezed his base. He's shaking, resisting the fall and I can't have that.

Deep in my throat, I moaned, feeling his pulse. His hips surged slightly forward. He was so close, but I didn't want it to be over yet. On my next retreat, I stiffened my tongue and pushed into his opening, lapping at the bit of cum I could taste there. I waited, playing at his head until his tension eased and I dived back into my rhythm.

His breathing was sharp and I felt him pulsing in my mouth. I moaned, shifting my hips to ease my own ache but I only managed to make me needier. With more vigor I paid all my attention to his shaft, his hips gyrated in time. "I'm close... so close." He warned and I slowed, easing him away from the orgasm so I could keep exploring.

Meliodas groaned, his fists in my hair eased and his fingertips grazed across my cheeks. "Is my sweet, innocent girl being wicked to me?" He questioned. His voice exuded pleasure. "Uhhhh." He groaned when I flicked my tongue in response, taking him deeper, skipping a pace in my pattern to surprise him. I felt... powerful, teasing him like this. Like I was driving him wildly mindless when it was usually the other way around.

He approached his release again and I sucked, retreating back. "Mercy!" He called out, "Mercy... Elizabeth." He begged. My face was flaming as I became a little flustered with myself. I dived back into it, building him up and letting him fall. His hot cum hit my tongue and I moaned, tasting him. I held his hips to keep him inside me and I'm too slow to swallow so the warm seed dripped from my lips and down my chin. He seemed to go on forever, his chin was high as if I'd hit him, his groan ongoing with his release.

With his last shudder, I sucked again, dipping my tongue into him to get the last drop and Meliodas gasped. His hands on my head pushed me away as he dipped his hips back from me and an embarrassing 'pop' sounded as he suctioned free. I covered my mouth, forgetting about the dripping cum and ended up smearing it, making me feel a strange combination of pride and nervousness.

Realization settled in and I smugly smiled, pleased with myself. When I met Meliodas' astonished expression, slowly his mouth parted and wide, blown away emerald eyes softened. He dropped to his knees. His thumbs came down to swipe over the mess on my face and he studied me, seemingly mesmerizing the moment. I knew how he felt, wanting to keep every second inside so as not to forget.

"You've mastered this. From your sweet innocent kisses at the start to you prolonging my release." He closed his eyes, face tilting in recollection and he looked so satisfied my own happiness bloomed in my chest.

"I like you in my mouth," I whispered, trying to explain but finding it hard to say more and the sweet softness that overcame him made me tingle with emotion. He kissed me, my lips, my cheeks, my nose and all around my face with sweet unhurried pecks. Meliodas seemed to enjoy the cum slickness as his chest hummed at first contact and he moaned as his lips slid in his mess over my skin.

"Let me show you how much I cherish you." Meliodas rasped, lifting me and cradling me gently against his chest. He left his pants behind and with calm unhurried touches, he undressed me. There were no frenzied touches that lead to my core, as I had expected. Instead, he gently massaged my feet, my calves and up. He flipped me to my stomach and rubbed my back. It's stimulating and passionate.

Instead of tossing me into the fire he kindled my coals, blowing so gently my flames grew slow and steady.

"I want to know your body." He hushed, hands worked my shoulders. He pressed at the joints of my wings and I was so beyond melted my tension was long gone. "To recognize you from the barest hint of a curve. Your body is perfection, Elizabeth. From your silky skin to your pillowy breasts. You have legs for days." I flushed, embarrassed and pleased as I hid my face against our bed with a grin. "Be proud, Elizabeth." His knuckles skimmed down my spine and my hips rose without thinking to prolong the contact. Tingles spread from his barely-there graze and I did feel cherished.

With a little maneuvering, I'm on my back and he started my breast massage, which made me giggle. I hesitated, about to cover myself, but my hands fell to either side of my head in surrender and Meliodas smiled, serene.

Wait!

I shoot up, sitting straight and Meliodas flinched into a crouch, arm out in front of me as if to protect me from an unseen threat.

"Meliodas!" I gripped his shirt, the only fabric between us. "We could kiss each other at the same time!" My eyes grew impossibly wide and I released him. I grew so hot I brought my hands to clasp at my chest to protect myself from the onslaught of vulnerability I felt. He's shocked, dropping his protective arm. Then he bellowed a laugh, his head thrown back with joy wrinkling at the corners of his eyes and divots on his cheeks.

"I've created a monster." He joked, eyes twinkling which quickly grew sly. He moved his face to be inches from mine. "When I kiss you its called, now I need you to repeat after me," his calm face smirked as he listed "eating pussy." I yelped, my jaw slacked as my hand slowly rose to cover my lips as if to physically stop myself from uttering anything. "Lip service, box lunch, tongue job, going down on, The butterfly flick, cunnilingus. oral sex." Sex... like I had crossed the threshold into being a non-virgin? Or did that only apply for him entering me at my core? My chest grew tight.

"You're joking," I hushed so low I'm sure he can't hear me. Yet, his head shook slowly, 'no'. He wasn't joking. Butterfly flick? I touched my heated cheeks to try and cool them but it was pointless as his grin grew to a full all-teeth smile. My eyes unfocused, lost in thought.

"When you kiss me... you can whisper the naughty words, Elizabeth," He still expected me to say them? His mischievous smile grew all the wider, looking at me. "Hummer, head, blow job, deep throating, fellatio, cock suck, mouth fuck," and I 'yip' my hand left my mouth to cover his as if to stop him but he speaks against my fingertips leaving a breathy sensation on my flesh "nose dive, slob knobbing, tonsil tickling-"

"Meliodas!" I blurted. My face couldn't get hotter. He nipped his teeth against the pads of my fingers and I grew warm at my core. My fingers fall away, brushing over his lips and chin.

"Don't get the wrong idea, I'm helping you." He tried to explain it, acting as if he didn't find some deep satisfaction with making me so flustered, especially about sex-play. Meliodas guided me to lay down, joining me with the blanket tucked over us. "How will you know what I'm talking about if you don't know the terms. I haven't even gotten into sixty-nine. The sexiest of numbers."

I stared warily, he knew I didn't know what he was talking about and he was looking at me so expectantly. He wanted me to ask and I did want to know what the term referred to. I looked at him curiously and reached for any of his skin to feel under the covers. "Why do you like teasing me so much?" I whispered, and he took pity on me, eyes still dancing.

"You're just so fun, you pinken in the best places." His finger trailed over the tops of my breast over the edge of our blanket and I peered down to see my flush had spread so far. No wonder my neck burned. He chuckled, relenting and softening as he felt me "I like that you choose such sweet words for our foreplay, but you should still know the vulgar expressions. For when you want to shock me to death, that is."

I smiled, a bit overwhelmed, but I tilted back to look up at him. "Will you take this off?" I tugged at his shirt. I liked us naked in bed together. Skin to skin. He wasted no time reaching behind his neck to pull it over his head, his hair got messier. I stretched up, when he laid down, to try and straighten it but the locks sprung back into chaos.

We laid there, my eyes closing and I felt safe in his arms, drifting away when his voice cooed gently, "Elizabeth?" He probed to see if I was sleeping.

"Hm?" I mustered from my throat.

"I never knew I could feel even half this much, before you." He admitted and in my drowsy state, I lazily grinned. "When my demon side takes over I become this unfeeling, killing machine. Something my father created and you've freed me."

"I'm glad," I hushed, wondering how he could say that about his demon self, I'd seen him coated in darkness and he'd been so tender with me. I kissed his chest with minimal effort, head on his arm and his hearts hummed, I could feel them against my own torso. He liked me, felt about me how I felt about him. I should be terrified but with him at my side, I needn't be afraid of anything.

Sleep took me, just as I heard him admit softly "even my anger, at our world, it's so intense. I didn't know wrath until you." My heart skipped a beat, aching.


	31. Home

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Beta'd by BellaCreatura, a wonderful friend and an amazing person, thank you.

Chapter Thirty-One: _Home_

I flew, lazy and slow to the well. A bucket was in my grasp and the sun shone down on me, gracing me with radiating heat. The city was already busy, a boom sounded in the distance with a billow of purple smoke escaping toward the sky, ruining the view but hitting the barrier that surrounded us all before bleeding through it into nothingness.

Meliodas and I were making stew, our food was never good, but it had gotten palatable. Neither of us knew enough to manage anything halfway tasty and Meliodas liked to experiment. He kept saying "I have to stumble on a good flavor combination eventually" but I think his constant tweaking was a big part of the problem.

Making my way back, I felt the air shift, not like the standard failed experiment, but my danger sense. Something big and 'wrong' was too near. My wings flinched open in a rush as I dropped the water. I rushed back to the hut and at our door, I heard an unfamiliar rumbling voice. Someone was in here with Meliodas?! I entered, looking around in a panic. The only beings were Estarossa and Meliodas. The two were staring at one another. His demon mark was spreading over Meliodas forehead as if an ink drop had dripped and smeared on his forehead.

He had felt it too, but the aura faded and fizzled out in a blink.

"What was that?" I asked, and his dark black eyes looked up at me.

"Out!" He snapped at the dog and the poor boy looked shaken as he bound out the open door I was holding, his furry legs unsteady. Estarossa wobbled a few feet from the door and laid down, panting. Had he felt the danger too? I shut the door, going to Meliodas with weary steps. His eyes looked right through me. Had he been that dark aura? Was it his inner demon? He didn't appear to be even a fraction as dark as he had been when he'd returned from Purgatory.

"I have to go." He stated, his tone leaving little room for discussion. He turned from me a second before my reach touched him and I dropped my hands, weary. With harsh movements, he gathered his clothing, pulling his giant broadsword from the wall it had been leaning against, collecting dust. "I don't want to." He explained, barely looking at me from the side of his face.

"Tell me what happened." I pleaded and I went to him, refusing to be ignored. With a seeking touch to his shoulder I bent to meet his lowered gaze. "Whatever it is, we can handle it."

"The demons claim the treaty has been breached. War is in the works and I need to do what I can to prevent it. The Demon King informed me I'm needed to lead the first assault but I'm returning to stop that attack from occurring." His eyes stayed black, solid darkness.

"I'll come with you," I stated, turning away to get my own bag and he dropped his sword hilt, a loud clang crashed at the same moment he gripped my forearm.

"He knows your parentage. The demon king- He just..." He pinched his face closed, shutting down but straining as if fighting against it. "Elizabeth, let me protect you." When his eyes opened, the green shone through and he dropped his firm grip on my arm as if alarmed at himself. "Stay here, I have every reason in the worlds to achieve peace between our clans. Let me handle this."

I stared, unsure how to take this. He was leaving me? We were separating and his father wanted him to fight... front lines fight... My hands folded over one another at my chest. Fear settled in my gut, my eyes filled. Meliodas blink-moved, cradling my head and my lower back as he leaned me forward against him.

"Please understand." He pleaded, voice desperate and he breathed me in, nose burying in my hair. I held him with my arms tight around his neck. "If you are here, in neutral territory I can focus fully on finding out what is going on, the commandments will listen to me, and... I need you to protect Merlin. The demon king is very determined to have her and that girl choosing either side will spark a war."

"I don't want to be without you," I whispered, eyes spilling over with the thought of being apart. He'd decided this so quickly and I shook my head as if to deny it.

If he was being summoned back to fight, he needed to be there to stop the attacks and if we were gone and Merlin did start negotiations with my mother and his father, whoever won her would have an advantage. It made sense that I would stay here... without him.

We've spoken of this, of her choice, of how we were showing her the best of each of our clans. Meliodas and I were cut from the same cloth, a sea of obligation before us, for a clan we had so little in common with. Our very ideals contrary to our own peoples, but so in accord with one another, it was extraordinary.

"Meliodas..." I cried, "if you have to fight, in spite of our efforts, I want you to come back, no matter who your enemy is." I shook, his grip growing firmer, and I wished I could just fold into him. Meliodas stills and I know he understands the depths of what I mean, the feelings behind it. He took a heavy breath, detangling us. With hands on my neck, we met gazes.

"I will always come for you," Meliodas promised, eyes so clear it reflected my tear-streaked face like a mirror.

"I'll wait." I stiffened my spine, shoulders rolled back with pockets of strength I had in reserve making me seem strong. "I'll protect Merlin." He smiled at my words, soft as he looked over my face with long slow looks.

Leaving our little hut, the chopped ingredients spread across our little table were forgotten, I felt a weight pressing down on me. He carried his bag and sword in the same hand over his opposite shoulder and I had both of my hands holding his other.

"The odds are against us..." I worried, looking briefly over at the sleeping pup before focusing back on Meliodas. I wanted to soak in the last of our moments together. "Our birthrights, our parents, our clans and this war... The dice were loaded from the start." My voice cracked, breaking off at the end.

"I'm still rolling," Meliodas declared, firm. "Odds stacked against us but I'm taking the chance." My eyes filled but I refused to let them fall, wanting to look happy for him- during our end. I tried for a smile.

Too soon we were talking to Merlin and Gregor. I fixed the broken man's mind, hauling Meliodas with me so I could continue to touch him, refusing to let go until our time had run out. Merlin was going to teleport him into demon territory, Gregor asked her to give us a minute and Meliodas and I were left alone in their sitting room. He'd left his things outside as his sword was far too big to fit normal places, let alone their small space.

Alone, we stared at one another. So many unspoken things between us. I wanted to tell him how I felt but it wasn't fair, not when we were parting. His eyes clouded over, he was putting on a brave face for me, just as I was for him. I smiled, tears falling in a strange contradiction of emotion. "I'll be waiting for you," I told him.

"I'll find you again." He swore.

I cupped his face, leaning forward and on his demon mark, I kissed him to imbue him with my blessing. Power coursed from me to him. I glowed and when I pulled away his face was absent of any tension for a brief moment, peaceful, but reality returned and he grabbed my head to press our foreheads together. His hands shook against me, his face pinched and he breathed me in as if scenting me.

"Elizabeth..." He croaked but I shook my head no. I kissed him, chaste and lingeringly before pulling away. We stared at each other for a few breaths.

We met Merlin and Gregor in the front yard. Meliodas released my hand to gather his sword and bag. For a second, everything inside of me chilled as his warmth was leaving me, the anticipation was killer. I wished I had more to give him. My emotions were thrashing inside me and I hurt, my heart clenched and I hid my frown. I always thought that 'heartache' was a turn of phrase, something people just said, but... my heart ached from missing him and he wasn't gone yet.

"I wish I could fight at your side," I told him, as he stood looking more ready than I felt. He assessed me, his eyes already dark but when he found mine, they brightened to emeralds.

"I'll fight for you," he vowed, his thumb brushed over the ribbons on the hilt of his sword. I smiled, watery and shaky, wishing he would touch me as reverently once more.

Merlin and Meliodas said their goodbyes but he didn't look away, staring me down. She did her magic, calling out a soft warning of "be careful" and he faded away. There was a flicker of him and then there was nothing. I felt my insides bubble up, the urge to start sobbing grew stronger but I breathed through it, believing in Meliodas. He'd come back.

Merlin and Gregor were murmuring to one another. I'm not sure how long I stood there, staring at where he'd been standing but Merlin waved before my face, getting my attention. She asked me to dinner and I agreed. Absently, I kept Gregor in his right frame of mind when he slipped into his madness.

I'm not sure what we ate, I took bites and when it was over I cleaned up, washing the dishes in their pail.

"Elizabeth?" Gregor solicited for my attention as I arranged the plates in the cupboard. Meliodas and I had been here often enough that I knew where things belonged as I've been helping Gregor fight back his insanity on a daily basis. "Merlin and I would like you to stay with us." He explained and the tears I've succeeded in keeping at bay, fell.

I dropped to my knees before Gregor, sobbing on his lap and his weak, wrinkled hand patted my head. Merlin was my main focus now. She needed me and I needed her, my reminder that there was still love and hope was all I needed. I thanked them, so glad I didn't have to go back to our little cottage without Meliodas, to live alone where we had been so happy while together.

Merlin walked with me, Gregor had fallen into a zoned out stupor and he did not have enough energy for me to bring him forth. Merlin understood, there were limitations and this was a balancing act. I packed my things, Merlin gathered the food and some other items. I coaxed Estarossa awake as I rubbed his head and gave him an explanation of Meliodas' absence.

"He's gone, boy. It's just the four of us now." I finished telling him. I may have given the dog more credit than was due as he looked blankly at me, or maybe he was still half asleep.

With a longing look, I said goodbye to the little house Meliodas and I escaped reality in. For a few shining weeks, the two of us had a break from the rest of the chaos. Gloom loomed, a grief-stricken child, a lonely goddess and a destroyed old man with their dopey puppy living together. 'What a family'.

But, I'm happy just to have one. It had been just Lady Graelle for so long and it was her job to care for me when I'd joined the temple.

I slept in Merlin's room, Estarossa on my cot and Merlin on the opposite wall. Sometimes in the night, Gregor would scream "He sees all!" or moaned in pain, reliving something neither of us knew about. When it got bad, I'd get up, give Merlin a kiss to her forehead with a soft "I bless you Merlin" and I would go to the door beyond ours to ease the man's mind in his own room.

It seemed like a day of tears were shed between the three of us. Estarossa didn't have the same pep in his steps, nor played as often. Gregor, in his moments of resolve, expressed his regret for not waiting until Merlin was older to do his experiment. I thought it strange he still didn't regret his findings, or what happened to himself in the name of science but it was the wizard's way here.

Sometimes Merlin would disappear as she wanted to be alone. She teleported to the mountain tops. She brought me once or twice and it was beautiful. The clouds were under you and the air was wispy thin. It reminded me of my city in the clouds but without the tension, yet all of the despair.

With tears streaming down her face, as her father had a particularly rough day today where even my touch couldn't sway his mind, I asked if Merlin wanted to fly. She brought us to the mountain top. She had climbed on my back, reminding me of Meliodas carrying me after our picnic which sparked the ache in my chest. I had to shake the dread off as I held Merlin's knee's at my hips and took to the sky. We flew through the clouds and she laughed, her innocent hand reached for the clouds above the mountain tops. It had eased my soul. The two of us enjoyed ourselves for the first time in a long while. "Thank you, sissy!" Merlin had said and now that we were both back home, she was still walking a little lighter in her steps.

Over dinner, with Gregor sunk in his chair with a blank face as he muttered about "the sands burn and the air ruins," Merlin asked me a troubling question.

"If given the choice, which side would you pick?" The knife I was using to chop up our mushrooms froze in my grasp. She continued. "The demons decimate villages in pursuit of absorbing magic, suck out people's souls, and the Goddesses enslave the people with their breath to siphon the energy in the land for themselves. If a village helps a demon regardless if the demon is good or not, they destroy the entire town for not reporting it."

Neither was right, but not every demon or goddess were guilty of these crimes.

"I love you, sissy." She said, "I'll side with the goddesses if it means keeping you safe." Tears slipped, I placed the knife on the table and I bent down to her level, hands on her drooped shoulders.

"I don't want you getting involved in this. Don't give either side a reason and you can keep so many people safe, myself included, if you stay out of it." I tucked her hair behind her ears. "Protect yourself, Merlin. Don't let either side force you into anything. With your power, people will try to use you, don't allow anyone to."

I kissed her forehead, "I bless you Merlin." I told her "With all my love, sis-sis." I put some power in it, granting her peace as I glowed slightly. She eased, but in a blink, her furrowing brow returned and she worried at her lip with her little teeth. Slowly, she nodded, going back to cooking. Estarossa scratched at the door, having finished his business and I let him in. I scratched at his ears until he greeted Merlin and then Gregor with nose sniffs.

Estarossa settled wherever we went. He was happy being wherever I was.

Gregor was coaxed to eat, enjoying the meal with us then blandly noted "I thought I was in the bath." Merlin and I laughed. I set out the rolls and as she brought over the main dish a squawk sounded at the window. My throat dropped to my tummy. 'No.' I looked over, slowly, all the while I hoped the beast would explode in a puff of feathers.

"Is that your messenger bird?" Gregor asked and I nodded, opening the window and the bird flies over to land on my shoulder, note tied to his foot with a white ribbon. The color I dreaded. Ludociel was calling me home. Meliodas had always taken care of the bird and I flushed, getting the animal some water and it lapped at it with vigor. While busy, I undid the ribbon and read the note.

'You know what to do.' It said, ever loquacious. I knew I'd been away much longer than my allotted months, but this was where Meliodas would come to look for me. Merlin snagged the paper, sighing as she threw it over her shoulder with disregard. I laughed as everyone did that to his missives, it seemed. Myself included.

"Let's eat sis-sis." and we did, the little white ribbon abandoned along with the note.

My problems faded in comparison that night when Gregor took his last shuddering breath. He'd lasted so much longer than he would have without me but it was little comfort as Merlin sobbed against me. Yesmeralda came herself, with Edmund and some of their lackeys to take Gregor to the underground arboretum. I asked if I could say a few words before he was lowered and though surprised, they allowed it.

I thanked Gregor for his kindness, for accepting me into his family. I told his corpse that I never would have experienced what it was like had he and Merlin not shown me what a family could be like. That his daughter would do great things because of him and his guidance. Merlin was in no state to say anything and I held her while his limp body lowered into the earth, to be recycled into the ecosystem.

She didn't smile for two weeks.

We moved homes, found a little place for the two of us as there were too many memories of Gregor in her childhood house. Merlin threw herself into her studies, adopted her father's artifacts and resources as her own. She had already taken on his clients but slowly she started referring people away. She relied on me to provide as she did her own research. My gems were dwindling but my healing had helped us from the beginning. I refused to charge but people always gave what they could.

Merlin and I were alone, waiting.

"I have an idea," Merlin told me, coughing up at the soup I made from her first bite. "Don't ever touch the salt again, Sis-sis." Merlin complained, before continuing. "The Demon King and Supreme Deity have made offers and... I know how to use it."

I flushed and grew suddenly unbearably hot. Estarossa snored in his sleep, his breathing loud in the silence.

"No." I hushed, alarmed, as if the two gods could hear. "Merlin, there will be consequences. Their power is... unquantifiable." The steady dread that lived inside of me, with Meliodas gone, grew. The feeling made breathing harder and it amplified with the thought of Merlin talking with either of our parents.

"Nonsense, everything is quantifiable." Merlin quipped, sounding so young "and numbers hardly matter, its cunning and a good plan that wins wars." I flushed, thinking of the fighting. Had it started? We hadn't heard and I knew the rumors would have spread if the war had begun again.

"Please, don't mess with them," I pleaded, afraid, but Merlin waved me off, taking a bread roll and excusing herself, abandoning my salt soup. "Please, Merlin!" I begged, standing but she went to her room, shutting the door and I knew not to follow her. She liked her space, and would shut down if I pushed. I wished so deeply that she understood the kind of power she was playing with. What kind of power she'd been burdened with.

Even with me, she was lost and without any true guidance. I gave her love but my reasoning never seemed good enough for her, her intelligence and scientific nature was hard to appeal to.

I cleaned up, offered my soup to Estarossa and the poor puppy seemed to like it. Squawks wouldn't give it a sniff, but he preferred the mice he hunted down so I only took moderate offense. Merlin liked the bird, often taking it with her when she left during the days.

When enough time passed and everything was cleaned up from my failed attempt at a meal together, I knocked on her door. When no answer came I cracked the door open, looking in to see her messy bed with experiments, vials and artifacts strewn about but I found it... empty of her. "Merlin?" I called, wondering where she would go at this hour. She would have had to teleport as I knew she hadn't walked by.

All the hairs on my body rose, a cold shiver elongated my spine and my wings fluttered noisily. Feathers fell from me jilted as if time had slowed to a trickle. I froze in place, the strongest presence... no the greatest concentration of power surged into this world as if a veil had been lifted. The atmosphere felt both wetter and grittier. My heart pounded, butterflies erupted in my tummy and my power rose, a light illuminated around me to protect myself instinctively.

I flinched into a run, moving from Merlin's doorway to the wide window that spanned across our living room wall. I pushed back the curtain and in the distance, over the mountain Merlin laid claim to, the two gods emerged. Their power sparked against one another, lightning struck and clouds rumbled overhead. Dread settled in me like a drop of acid in my stomach. The blinding light of my mother and the dark vacuum of the Demon King warred. Merlin hadn't listened. I hadn't listened. What had been her idea? Why hadn't I asked?

Merlin was going to die.

Tears streamed down my face and Estarossa whined. The dog braved fireworks, magic, and demons but in the face of this, even from such a distance... he cowered. The town erupted in chaos as people rushed below in the streets. The smarter ones fleeing but some, the ones like me, either in awe or unable to teleport, just stared with trepidation. A boom sounded, a cloud of rolling power exploded and rushed toward us, massive and unstoppable. Screams filled the air, a horrifying chorus of notes.

A soft pop sound came from behind me, but I was too mesmerized as the force erupted the mountain, the clouds rolled in taking down towers, people and everything in its path. Silently, I sent a goodbye to Meliodas, that I loved him and everything we had together. To Merlin a soft thread of forgiveness as she was so lost without her father, not in her right mind and to Lady Graelle a thank you, for being the first person I remembered that loved me. A hand grabbed mine and Belialuin vanished. The screams of those left in the burning city echoed.

Am I dead? The afterlife was a lot different than I thought. For one, it smelled like sulfur and trees were amassed all around, smoke wafted overhead and I coughed as I breathed it in. "Grab your bag!" Merlin demanded, shoving the thing at my chest and in pure reaction, I caught it before it fell.

"Merlin!" I yelled, so relieved as I pulled her to me, my bag squished between us and I kissed the side of her head. "I'm so glad you are okay."

"How can you be?" Merlin scoffed, pushing me away. "We can't stay together. They'll be looking for me." I released her, adjusted my bag and looked around at our feet expectantly. Estarossa? I frowned, turning at Merlin with alarm. "I... I tricked them, both." She said, a grin of pure satisfaction spread. "I have their blessings, the gods can pretend all they want but..." Merlin stopped, shaking her head as a bloodied woman ran past coughing with a limp bundle in her arms, a toddler's foot dangling from it.

"Run!" She pleaded to us in rushed alarm, "the city has fallen."

We were close? We could try to save some of them!

"Merlin..." I whispered. As I looked to her I saw her come to the realization of what happened, the devastation on her face was heartbreaking. I swung my bag over my shoulder and leaned forward with my hands cupping her head. I kissed her forehead. "You have my love," I told her and when I pulled away she was crying, tears streamed down so much like when she'd lost Gregor not yet five weeks ago.

Then her face blurred and this too disappeared. "No!" I yelled, but it was too late, I was in clear air, a forest of trees surrounded me and as I looked around I screamed "MERLIN!" but nothing answered. The birds and insects silenced. My own bird Squawks, he was gone too. His disgust at my soup flashed in my mind. Then my sweet puppy, Estarossa who'd been with me on this journey for so long... He met his death with fear when he'd been a brave dog in life.

Merlin had been successful and in the god's rage, had the two joined forces to punish her? Destroying all those people and the entire city?

I sat, my bag flopped in the dirt beside me as I felt my failure course through me. I hadn't kept Merlin safe... Estarossa was gone... I folded into myself, sobbing into my bag with overwhelming sorrow. I thought of his tiny little puppy body, Meliodas handing him to me, worrying after the wounded pup and the children at Charity's home taking such good care of him. The kids in the demon clan and Pip teaching him to beg for food which I wished now he would, just one more time.

My mother- no, the Supreme Deity and the Demon King... to cause Merlin to suffer, they killed so many peaceful people and my puppy! Merlin was a little girl! One who needed more love in her life and was suffering alone. She's on the run. Steel shot down my spine, my wings fluttered to life and I grabbed my things, taking to the sky.

Hot anger joined my cold sorrow and inside felt like a storm of warring emotion. I'm alone now, I had to figure this out myself.

Merlin planned this, packing for me and stashing our stuff, but she had no idea what would happen! She had underestimated their punishment. I myself would never have considered the two gods would work together toward... anything.

I rose, taking to the clouds to see any land marker. Immediately, I spotted something I recognized. My heart hammered as I took it in. All of its crumbling glory evoked so many emotions in me. Heavens Theater. I headed there, looking over the nostalgic place with a warm fondness in my chest which added to the storm within. It eased my loneliness, thinking of the memories here. I had to be strong. I failed Meliodas, I failed Merlin, but I would work even harder and do even more to ensure peace.

When I dropped to our regular stage, I almost smiled. The demon coins were here, arranged in an arrow, pointing to the goddess on the viewing balcony. I watched the sky, dropping my bag to process everything that's happened, trying to untangle my emotions. After so many memories in Belialuin, I hated how my time there ended. Every memory was tainted now. All the people I'd met, the festival and a flash of the precious times I shared with Meliodas, they left a metallic taste in my mouth.

I rearranged the coins in the shape of a heart, flowers blooming where my tears fell and I kicked a blossom away as I walked to the edge of the stage. I overlooked the view I'd seen so many times growing up. The Demon territory and the Goddess clan were in opposite directions, so it was my choice to make. The theater floated near the neutral zone, a place between the two clans. Merlin was giving me the option and I'm tired of waiting. I never want to wait again.

Home or... home? The white ribbon I had ignored or Meliodas. Which fate do I accept? To take my mantle and lead my people or go on the run and join my love to fight by his side? Responsibility or my own desires?

Just as I made up my mind, turning to grab my things, the choice was taken from me.

A small oval-shaped head floated before me. Its arms were as long as its body and reached to the ends of his short legs. I hadn't sensed him, his head tilted to the side, his thin face and eyes smiled. A trickle of unease slithered through me before dark flames shot unexpectedly, his arm raised and the attack clipped my right main wing. Hellfire. It burned and I screamed, not having any time to defend myself. Where had he come from?

I dropped into a stance, fired an ark where he hovered but when it exploded, the theater underfoot shook and he was gone. He moved like Meliodas, he could conceal his presence and I hadn't had a clue that he was about to attack before he had. I was outmatched and I decided on another tactic.

"You surprised me!" I called out still in my stance and backing away from the crumbling edge as I made my way toward the stone seats. "I'm sure I surprised you too. I'm Elizabeth, let's talk this through..." I healed my wing, my magic fizzing with the effort as Hell Fire was notoriously painful to heal. It's made of darkness, opposite my light. Sweat coated me from the effort and I shook out my wing when the burned feathers were shed and new growth took over.

"Surprise... yes, surprise." A childlike voice called and I couldn't tell if they were male or female from the soft lilt. A fire erupted and I kicked off into the sky, spinning over the black licks of flames, my blades sparked to life. Outmatched or not, I was fighting.

"Surprise!" Another voice, clearly male exclaimed, I turned, shocked. There were two of them? He was tall, floating with black wings framing around his bare chest. His mustache and beard were morphed to one and curved up and around his face like a bullseye, his bald head at the center. I could hold my own against one upper-level demon, but two?

I was taken from behind, black flames burned at my wings and I arched away, trying to escape, my blades firing wildly and I hear a pained grunt. A leg wrapped around my own from behind, a hand gripped where my wing met my back and I struggled. Meliodas would be furious I had fallen into this attack again. One of my wings separate from my back. He'd ripped it clean, using his fire to sear the wound.

I howled, the agony that scorched my nerves were unbearable. My limb was gone, but I still felt it as if it were burning along it's bone to its non-existent tip.

When hands gripped my other wing I arked, panicked as I flew them in every direction, light exploded all around and I fumbled in my flight as the demon flung me away in all the chaos I created. My feet tumbled over my head from the momentum and I smashed into the stone steps of the theater, my remaining wings useless without the fourth. It crumbled around me, blood spitting from my mouth.

In a soft rush of breath, I realized I'm going to die here. I already gave my mental goodbyes today so it seemed fitting.

I stood, dropped into my stance as the two demons land ten feet away at my right and my left, flanking me. At least my back was protected now and my remaining wings were safer. Why hadn't I kept training? I'd grown softer in peace.

Neither looked harmed, the bald mustache man actually looked bored and he spoke, blandly to the other. "Demon coins." He pointed to the heart shape in the gold pieces and my bag. "Someone's getting their dick wet with the enemy."

"Who'd want to fuck fowl?" The tiny demon said. The lines on his rounded forehead bounced up at the news. Were those eyebrows?

"Or, pay for it?" The other asked, referencing the gold. With their attention away, I turned, bounding up the steps and in desperation, I dove off the viewing stage beside the goddess statue. Mid arch, my other wing was seized and I released my ark power, my blades slashing. They were impossibly fast. My attack connected but the demon took the hit, unphased. I felt the tearing at my back as feet press to my spine and my wing was cleaved from my flesh, the socket removed.

I'm torn open, buoyant where I used to support the weight of my wings and I flinched, in shock. My thoughts seemed to be pulled free along with my limb and I couldn't understand for a moment why I was upside down. The mustache guy had caught me by my ankle and they flew us down to the ground. I struggled and wiggled, as the smaller demon took the lead before us. The taller demon shook me but it didn't stop me from trying to fight my way free. The oval demon's line mouth tilted up as he gnawed on the end of my wing. My feathers shed in his grasp as we descended. He's... eating them?

"He won't be pleased." Oval head said, sharp teeth around my detached socket, my blood smeared on his face like sauce.

"What a surprise." Mustache man deadpanned. "We know what needs done." A 'hm' sounded in agreeance.

"I want the other two." Oval-heads childlike voice chimed and I didn't know what he was talking about until Mustache man twisted me around to look at my ruined back. No!

"Huh, four wings." No! Not again, I couldn't. I sparked my blades, crossing them mid-arm and at point blank I fired my ark before my face, hoping to take us all out in one go with my atomic blast. The boom echoed, the power surged and the skin of the two demons before me burned away, their bodies eroding as all my energy unleashed. I flapped as if caught in gale-force winds, still held in place by my ankle in the grip of the big one. The bone snapped from my own momentum.

They didn't move, rooted and without the cube, my power dispersed through the trees, leaving new growth and flowers in its wake... but they survived. Without the waves lapping back, my attack was just one blow, powerful but not focused enough.

Mustache man felt his face, howling, not in pain- but in anger.

"This cunt just burned away my perfect hair!" The melted man that used to have a mustache hollered, shaking my broken ankle while I hung the wrong way up. I couldn't muster anything this time, limp with exhaustion. These two were obviously top tier demons, ones Meliodas had kept away from me, for good reason. They must be part of the ten commandments... From his information, I put together two guesses, Anorak and Zeno.

"She did you a favor." The oval kid said. Skin chunks returned to him as his tendrils found and pulled them to his body, erasing the visible damage to his body. "Besides, we are going to take her wings... she thinks this is a life or death situation. I'd fight if the roles were reversed." I almost felt like this kid and I connected for a moment until he moved to my back to grip my wing.

"No!" I struggled to get out of his grasp. Too late. The mind-numbing white-hot fire of pain shoots through my body. With my last wing, I gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to react and the man gripping me shook me as if wanting my screams. The sound of teeth on my separated bones and the mustache-less man saying "You have enough wings to last you the month now" were the last thing I heard before darkness claimed me.

They'd taken others? What was happening between our clans?


	32. Brotherly Love

Our First Fall  
A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Thank you BellaCreatura for Beta'ing this chapter, I adore you.

Chapter Thirty-Two: _Brotherly Love_

Her eyes shone like crystals, so blue I could see my own reflection. She stood in Gregor and Merlin's front yard, the wind played at her hair and caught her feathers. I committed this to memory. The last I'd see of her for however long ending this threat to our peace took.

Merlin snapped her fingers and as I faded, as the world went dark in a multitude of ways, I stared where Elizabeth had been. My chest constricted. She was holding herself together for me, I could tell as she wore her bravest face. I had been too. As soon as the demon city's border came into view I released my held breath and flickering darkness erupted around me, alive with destructive emotion.

The ground, the stacked wood of the border and the plant life in a twenty-foot radius of me burst away from the force. I tossed my sword away, watching it soar through the air and slice into the earth to save the ribbons, the only things I had of her. The cloth of my bag shredded, my clothes flaking until just the straps of the sack in my fist remained.

Was her pretty plump lip quivering? Her little chin dripping with her sorrow? This world has separated us again and I vowed to myself I wouldn't allow it to happen!

"A tantrum?" A chiding voice mocked and I looked over toward the border to see my brother casually walking toward me with his hands in his pockets. His own demon mark was on his forehead, precise tendrils of darkness batted away my demon power to clear his path to me. Zeldris' hair was blown around from the force but his clothes didn't disintegrate as he neared. "If you keep this up, the commandments will come." My brother warned.

I howled, hands coming up to rip at my own hair. "I fucked up." Fistfuls of blonde disconnect from my skull and the threads blew away, slipping from between my fingers just like every silky part of Elizabeth had. "I fucked everything up. You were right! How you handle Ge-"

I blinked and suddenly a smashing fist connected with the side of my jaw. I skidded, losing my stance as I fumbled with over sloppy steps from the momentum. "Ears are everywhere you goddamn moron! You already doomed Elizabeth, don't seal our fate with yours." I returned the favor, charging as I connected with the side of Zeldris' face. The punch's remaining force jolted up my arm to my shoulder and I worked it out as I jumped away from my brothers skidding form.

"Nothing will touch her. I won't allow it." I boomed, miasma flicking out like sparks meeting and sizzling against my brother's equal power. "She's hidden, safe, outside of all this."

"She'll never be hidden well enough." Zeldris sneered, using his sleeve to wipe at his scrape but with the motion, his expression lost its harshness, his eyes were green when he looked into mine. "I hope you manipulated her well enough to keep her away but you know how he is. I always thought you were such an idiot showing your hand but-" My brother's tender voice cut off with his scowl, "Suck it in, Meliodas." Zeldris demanded, turning away and moving towards me- back first. I felt it, the approaching powers and my darkness restricted to cover me like clothing, my collar flecking in my face, adding to my agitation.

Responding dark powers surrounded me. Grayroads and her mask of faces swirled at the edge of the torn up radius around me. Melascula stayed floating, legs parted salaciously. Galand clucked a laugh as he called out from behind. "You were away too long, Captain!" Calmadios was at his side but he simply gave me a blank nod in greeting, one in which I returned. Zeldris stopped at my side and I found myself angling my back to his as if we are in the middle of a goddess battle again- but we were surrounded by our own people this time.

Both of us were compromised and I felt my demon mark spread cold down my face as I stretched my neck, trying to settle back into who I used to be. I didn't recognize any version of myself before her. I couldn't remember enjoying a single thing until she came into my world. My past looked faded in black and white now that I knew what colors were.

Yet, these people were mine to lead, my family, clan, and friends... My responsibility.

Derieri and Monspeet arrived together, she leaned on his shoulder examining her nails as if already bored but Monspeet was tall, curiously looking around. He didn't say a word. Aranak was another story as he fixed his perfect circle mustache, "It took you a long time to find one little girl." Zeno was at his side, an oval headed small demon but his size was a rouse as his power earned his place among our elite.

" _I_ didn't gain our entrance into the city." I snarled, not lying as Elizabeth had been the one to conquer that particular problem. I fumed, rooting my stance as I realized when I said 'our' I meant Elizabeth and me, not the demon clan as a whole. My loyalties have been stolen away so completely I looked to my old friends, seeing them as potential enemies. Especially so if they ever crossed her. "I need an update," I demanded, looking to Monspeet as he was the most level headed.

Gowther wasn't here. I hoped Demon Gowther has been busy in my absence and I didn't bring attention to his son's lack of appearance now.

Monspeet put a fist to his mouth, clearing his throat as he explained "There have been a string of covert attacks on outlying demon settlements. We believe the goddesses are behind the attacks as the locations are left vacant, ghost towns." Ghosts reminded me of her, a smirk played at my lips at the thought of her absurd fear. She could face off and beat back my golem but when she woke from her nightmares and snuggled into me, her fears were always about _ghosts._

"Show me," I demanded, realizing I faced the countless night without her wings tickling over me in the night. "I want proof!" My voice showcased my aggressive anger at the thought.

"There's more." Monspeet continued, face impassive as Derieri moved away from him. Her bare leg kicked out as she stretched her dark limb as if the power needed to work out an ache. "The troops are rallying for retaliation attacks. We have three dispatched at the border, the attacks will begin-"

"Stop them!" I roared. I divided them into three groups, sending them each to intercept the armies. "I command the troops!" I condemned. "I'll investigate myself and when I deem it time to war, _if_ I deem it worth the battles, I'll make the first blow!" I declared. I stalked in a circle to address them all, my power was chaotic bursts and the lot of them were wide-eyed. Melascula was already retreating away from me in fear. "Go!"

The groups diverged in different directions and I let off a string of curses that I knew would leave my girl blushing. The thought sours in my mouth as I realized it was just Zeldris here. My resentment leaked into my voice when I addressed him.

"There's a vampire feeding information to the goddesses. Find out who the fuck it is. He shoots beams, has silent ornamental bells on his shoes and long, dark hair. Use him to find out what the hell the goddesses are doing with our people or bring him to me." My old self reared his head, I fought to stay at the helm as my demon's need to tear something to shreds for her suffering became my focus. I must stay in control. If I could stop this, fix it, we could go back to the peaceful lazy days we've shared so few of.

"It doesn't get easier." Zeldris murmured as he faced me, acting as if I wasn't a breath away from losing control and hadn't given him an order when I had no right to demand anything from him. "Being away from where you truly want to be, it's hell, but I endure for her." The look he gives me, it's obvious he believed I could handle this, but I felt like the world didn't have enough air. This place felt different to me without her. She'd roamed these city streets and she'd healed my people, our fields and my soul. In the end, all I'd done for her was manipulate her into abandoning her clan. I forced her hand so she would hide in Belialuin with Merlin as her guard.

The two of us, Merlin and I, would give our own lives for Elizabeth's. That little girl threatened me daily in Belialuin, that if I ever harmed her sis-sis... I shook my head, gazing at my brother. "Trade rooms with me." I demanded, ignoring his admission as I feared facing my own bed without her. With the desperation clawing me open, I could see the merit in having kept Elizabeth a secret from the start as Zeldris had with Gelda. Only our mentors, outside of the two of us, knew.

"Fuck off." Zeldris quipped, turning and strolling away towards the castle. "I've investigated already, I'm sure you'll do it over, but each abandoned town, it's like they are siphoning our magic, trying to use our own power against us." My brother didn't stop and I snarled at nothing, a wild animal as I followed, gathering my blade as I went. The ribbon's under my palm a small bandaid over a gushing, gaping wound.

.X X X X.

It'd been weeks since I've seen her and that's days beyond my acceptable limit. Each night I let myself fall deeper into my demon. It numbed me and the temptation was too great to resist. My mind tormented me. I had her, I let her go and my world was dull without her. I couldn't go near my wing of the castle. If I saw her clothes in my closet or smelled her scent on my pillow, I'd lose the shaky grip I had on my demon. I'd drown in it all, I'd let myself sink into the feelings of being without her.

I rose, glaring death over at the rays of sun shining through the curtains. In my mind I saw a flash of her face contorted in bliss, in the throws of her orgasm she shines a glow similar to this. The light taunted me and my cock hardened at the thought of her. I refused to relieve myself, I'd have Elizabeth or I'd have nothing. All the roads of me dead-ended at her.

I'd finish this tonight. The sooner this threat to the treaty was over, the sooner I could go to her. I rose, readied for the day with my darkness flicking over my flesh, cold and slippery. I exited the guest wing, advancing through the castle. Others scattered as I approached, demons ran for cover and as I entered the chamber where the commandments were waiting the chatter ceased. Even they were wary of me and it set my bad mood up another notch.

"I'm not a fan of asking," I barked, approaching the end of the table knowing the lot of them were discussing something they were nervous about. They all shared tense glances and I wearily sighed.

"Grayroads is harvesting souls." Galand tattled, pointing to the demon across the table. Her faces spun as she stretched taller, her darkness lashing out across the room and the walls shook. This was our fourteenth room and they were getting smaller as we destroyed them. I sat down at the head of the table, not surprised. Grayroads had hit three other towns but last night the two of us had a 'heart-to-heart' where I removed one of hers so she understood how serious I was about not killing.

"We found a pair of Angels mid-attack on Cragmaw." Monspeet soothed into the tension and this news was much more palatable. Derieri agreed with the assessment with a low assenting hum. I laughed, my demon fell away and I felt lighter than I have in days. I'd summon Ludociel with the news that we found the 'perpetrators', I'm banking on him using the captured as scapegoats to portray them as 'acting alone'. If it bought Elizabeth and I a few months of no attacks we could come up with our own plan to bridge the gap between our clans during the reprieve.

A political marriage of this magnitude would shake so many, but with the right timing, we could spin the circumstances of our births in our favor. After we married, we could alternate which city we lived in. I spent much of my time planning this, the images have become my happy place, a mental palace of fantasies where I ravaged her every morning and every night for the rests of our lives.

"The pair are in the dungeons," Zeno explained, in control of himself. "They won't be harmed but I suggest we extend the delivery as long as possible until our investigation is complete." The request was reasonable and I appreciated having them as they counteracted the other half of my team. The other part of the commandments that kept giving me so much trouble. They wanted to prevent the war while Galand and Grayroads seemed to want to spark it again. If those two didn't hate each other so much the pair could do actual damage to what I'm building. The updates were lacking and Zeldris still hadn't returned from the vampire clan but he was there on official business so I didn't mind him extending his stay for a few days to be with his girl.

I'd do the same, I did the same.

I looked around the group, the lot of them joking and calling each other out on their shit. I watched, smirking at a few jibs and I felt a momentary connection with my friends. It reminded me of myself and Zeldris to a certain degree. Of everyone, I trusted the commandments the most and what I've been vacillating about was decided.

"A while ago, there was a goddess living in our clan, Elizabeth. If you come across her, you bring her straight to me." I darkened, tendrils leaked as my fears took the fore in my mind. I commanded, "if a single hair is out of place because of anyone here I _will_ be driven to kill you." The table was silent, confused, but I was serious. They knew it. I stood and left. If I wanted Ludociel to buckle to my whims I needed to be a few steps ahead of him.

Elizabeth had told me everything she knew of the man and from that, I figured Ludociel's strategy skills were beyond my own. I had to force his hand in another way, stack the deck in our favor or just Elizabeth's favor if that's all I could manage. If I could find a way to keep Belialuin off the radar than that's what I'd do. Merlin and I have had this planned as I knew I'd eventually be summoned home. I hoped she freed Estarossa from that curse by now, she'd gotten much closer to succeeding than I had.

That little girl's mind was fierce. Gregor's too when Elizabeth pulled him back. With my girl's healing skills, I estimated he would have years left, and as long as Elizabeth had her own purpose she'd be content with her contribution. Merlin guaranteed she'd filter out any news of the war so Elizabeth wouldn't feel the need to leave. Elizabeth would give her life for this shit and that's a price I would never pay.

The blood in my body froze, the thoughts heavy and the firm grasp I had on my demon slipped. My beast rose, ready to fight the non-existent threat to Elizabeth. Each day that passed without her, the more demon I became.

.X X X X.

Chandler and Cusack fought how Zeldris and I normally did, like angry siblings. The two were 'discussing' the newest developments when it devolved into a locking of figurative horns. I left the old bats as the insults charged. With me in the room neither mentioned my predilection for Elizabeth but I'd heard it from the both of them before. I was in no mood.

The troops were furious with their immobility.

I couldn't blame them. Ludociel refused to collect our prisoners, claiming they aren't his charges. I sent two requests and a messenger about 'having found the goddesses responsible for the attacks'. Basically feeding him the answer and he wasn't biting. Either my plan was too obvious or he wanted our clans to war again. Elizabeth believed he wanted to stop it, with his participation in the treaty I had too, but this proved otherwise or there was something else going on I couldn't pinpoint. I wanted to speak to her about it, Elizabeth would know what to do but with the churning murderous rage in my people towards hers, I couldn't bring her here.

By force of my might, I kept them in line. The commandments had my back, my orders to them the only ones I could truly rely on being executed to the degree I found acceptable.

Mina approached with a bunch of towels in her arms as she rushed by, a frown on her face. The girl didn't stop and I watched her go. She never complained when I asked her to fetch things from my rooms when I needed them. I had hoped to share a memory of Elizabeth, to remind myself how far her reach had spread. That her influence still rang in the castle, but with Mina scurrying away so did my chance of reminiscing.

I missed my girl.

New chills iced over me and I tensed, ready for the blow as I felt the familiar power encroach. He'd recovered enough to pull me through again? A tear in this world was created, rancid air and sand billowed from the crack. The vortex within was so powerful, struggling was pointless and I let myself be sucked into Purgatory as the things not bolted down rushed into the force of the storm inside.

I fell through the air, the vortex sucked me in. The solid rock of the land greeted me, knocking the breath from my lungs. The hot air choked, my eyes burned from the pressure and I wondered what state I'll be in when I returned without her at home to patch me up. Even asleep with her fever, she helped. I had laid her body atop mine because her breathing, her scent, and her steady heartbeat soothed me. The simple weight of her pressed to me would cure all my hurts. I had nothing now but my own will to prevent my deterioration.

A fraction of a moment later, a solid body slammed into the back of mine and I elbowed it out of instinct. Zeldris' grunt was so familiar to me I recognized it immediately as his power rose to meet my aggression. I stood to face him. He's naked, fresh vampire love bites at his throat still dripping blood. Even with my burning lungs, I laughed.

"You better fix that." I pointed to my neck to indicate his. Little flicks of his darkness knit the tiny holes closed as he swiped at the blood with his bare forearm.

"It won't matter." Zeldris' power burned harsher, the winds themselves howling as if in agony and the bleak ruined views crumbled constantly from the grounds quaking. "Not anymore. He found me." My brother leaked black as his rage built just as my father loomed to our right, his body grew larger and larger but I paid it no mind. Zeldris had lost his mind. My logical, cynical asshole of a brother was showing his emotions.

I've deduced why. He'd _been_ with Gelda when The Demon King pulled him in, he's afraid he's doomed Gelda as he thinks I've done to Elizabeth.

I charged forward, attempting to take Zeldris by surprise to smash his face in so father would believe he was reacting to our fight, like how he used to in our childhood. After my elbow though, my brother was ready and it was me that got an uppercut to the face. "I'm not in the mood to play." Zeldris' hissed but he didn't understand yet.

With a spin kick, his arm came up and while blocking I told him at a whisper, "I'm helping." My brother didn't believe me, I rained hits for him to block, I caught him twice and he caught me thrice. His eyebrow split open but he wasn't returning to himself, his fear had brought his demon to the forefront, his will gone and my father's bellowing voice stilled us. My fist was caught in his palm, his blocked with mine. We're face to face, my green eyes met his black ones as he hissed.

"I've cured my eldest son to find my youngest also afflicted." The Demon King boomed. I no longer gave a fuck about our fight and I turned. Zeldris returned the favor as I slipped, his punch connected with the side of my head and I stumbled away from him with a grimace. What affliction did he cure me of? My thoughts run amuck as my father brought his sword up to point at Zeldris. "You have never taken a woman, I've sent countless to entice and where Meliodas abided you resisted. I would have preferred you gay to being a leech fucker."

My brother tensed to attack. Our father hit his hot button and I used my distance to get a running start before I crashed into the side of Zeldris. The Demon King's attack came after, hitting my back but with my brother under me, he was shielded. "Get it the fuck together, Zeldris. You can think yourself out of anything!" To drive the point home I head-butted him, smashing my forehead into his nose and it gushed blood in a burst as I struggled against the force at my back.

"I've summoned you to share the good news and I find you hushing sweet words to a vampire draining your blood!?" The power faded and I 'hup'd' to a stand, strolling as casually as I could with the dread that settled in. Father had done something to me and I needed to figure out what. To give my brother time to harness his demon once more I got our fathers attention. Something neither of us ever wanted.

"I sent him to the vampires to get information." My clothes fell off and whipped away in the winds as the Demon King's attack had shredded my back, fabric included. My junk swung as if unintimidated because I knew it pissed off my father. I put my hands up to show my pits and widened my eyes as if innocent of the blatant taunt. "So what if he used his dick to get it?" Questions aren't lying so both claims would pass. Slowly, I eased my darkness out and around me to cover myself as the face of my father grinned down at me.

"I'll hear it from him." My father's excited anticipation of the upcoming torture stilled my heart as I remember too well what the Demon King had done when he found out about Elizabeth. I did not wish that on my brother. Zeldris rose, I gave him a backward glance and I knew he'd returned to himself as he was looking to me with a scowl. I laughed, but it was cut short as my father spoke again and shared his news.

"Belialuin has fallen." He chuckled boastfully and for a moment, just one blissful moment I didn't process what he said and my brothers face flashed a brief expression of alarm. "The Light Deity herself combined her powers with mine to destroy Merlin for her trickery- not realizing her own daughter would perish in the blow. The tides of war have turned in our favor." My brain refused the information, denied it. A simple veto, to protect myself. But my demon, my demon rose with a severity I've never felt. Even if I tried to fight it, I wasn't sure if I could, but I didn't try. I bowed to my beast, falling into my bleak pointless existence as the strength of the storm inside frightened me.

I didn't want to feel it, I wouldn't, I couldn't.

I felt like purgatory itself swirled in my chest, burning, and grating. A long howl roared from my throat and dark blades, like and unlike Elizabeth's, sprung down my arms. He killed her, I'll kill him or die trying. I sunk, preparing for the launch at my father's joyous, roaring face when I'm slammed in the side, one of my blades easily impaled my attacker.

My brother took me down, his own darkness canceled out mine and we rolled, tumbled and exploded along the cliffside. An avalanche of rocks cascaded around us. In the noise my brother opened his mouth, blood spraying from the force of my impaling attack to mist my face with the droplets as he spoke.

"You finally do something clever and now this?" His dark face sneered and in a reversal of favors he headbutted me. His forehead slammed into my nose and it's my blood that sprayed out this time. "He lies." My brother hissed and the thought trickled down my spine past my demon and through the dark nothingness I was suspended in. I was aware enough to understand he had a point but I didn't rise from my vortex. I'd kill the Demon King anyways, for trying to remove Elizabeth from the world. To me it would be like killing the sun itself, I'd only have a few moments to live without her warmth.

But, the alternative to dying when there was a chance she was still in the world, needing me, that was enough for my Demon to pause on his own. I dropped my dark blades and tried to find a way for my lungs to function. The over-sized hands of my father reached and the two of us were caught, gripped and squeezed together as he chides us both for being children.

"Meliodas, destroy the other clans. I have plans for your brother." Zeldris' breathing steadied, preparing himself for the fight of his life.

"You were right." I rose alongside my demon to speak to my brother, I feed my dark self the words "What you said, about it not getting easier. All of it." With dark glinting eyes Zeldris met my gaze as our father's other hand plucked me away and I allowed it, wanting to go back to the realm where Elizabeth existed. _She had to exist._ I'd feel it, right, the moment her soul parted? My brother nodded, understanding this was all I could armor him with, as close as I could get to remind him to 'do it for her'.

The bleak pointlessness of enduring any number of moments without Elizabeth ensured I was lost as my demon and I are stuffed back into our world. From the force of returning, I collided with the far wall of the hallway in the castle and smashed the stonework in. Sand trickled from the locks of my hair and I left a trail as I advanced heavily and quickly to Gowther. I needed him to send me to Belialuin, days ago if he could manage it.

To see Elizabeth or face what remained. I couldn't even touch the thought without darkness lashing out around me. A suit of armor sliced to pebble sized bits as my power passed over it. Peronia devolved to tears as I entered, cowering and then bolting at the first opportunity. When I reached the front glass of Gowther's prison, I pulled at his chains with so much force the man crashed into the barrier between us. He braced against it, palms out and skin skidding. The glass begun to melt away, warping on my side.

"It's true then?" Gowther whispered, and he shook as he righted himself in his chair. "I'll dispatch Gowther, he can help us find them. They may have escaped." The only man I could fully trust gave me a pitying look and my darkness leaked into his prison, invading the magic with my own. He shivered, snapping his shaky finger in fear to send me away before the tendrils touched him.

The repelling magic was still active as I arrived in the woods, seemingly the same place Gowther had sent Elizabeth, Estarossa and I the first time. I knew in one blink that it was all true. Where the sky used to be blue, it was now dark. Ash floated like snow, it clustered on the earth and on the parts of the trees that still remained.

My darkness shot up, the sky dimmed overhead as I funneled my emotions up and away so I wouldn't have to feel so much of its suffocating intensity. I was a worn conduit, over-encumbered and disintegrating without her.

My lungs quit. My eyes burned and it had nothing to do with the ashes. The chance of her surviving this was nil, the chances of her escaping only marginally better. I had to know, I had to make sure before I made my next move. There was nothing for me to fight for anymore and when my beast rampaged into the silky fine ashes, I let myself be completely overcome with darkness. I buckled to the cold numb, unable to endure the searing insanity of my writhing torment.


	33. Tainted Blood

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Thank you BellaCreatura for being a sheer gift to me and my story.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Tainted Blood

Someone... was at my neck? I could hear the sucking noises. I groaned, weakly pushing at the body there. It's solid, a rock that couldn't be moved as I tried again.

A dull ache stung where this body was attached and slowly I realized... Vampire? Vampire!

I yelled, ripping myself away and teeth tore across my flesh from my actions. My attacker had dark hair and an aura I knew but couldn't place. Where was I? It was damp, musty and fire dimly burned on the other side of the door. Light shone in from there but nothing was lit in the... room? No... Cell.

Cold stone was under me and I struggled to sit up. The vampire laughed, using a single finger to hold me in place. Above is a dim stone ceiling, chains at my wrists and I looked around. Others were chained to the pillars, some to the wall but all of them had nubbed wings, snapped off just like mine. I winced, the ache still throbbing and a cold shiver spiked down my spine.

The vampire came forward, teeth gleaming and I struggled, fighting with everything I had left and yelled in terror until someone interrupted.

"You're not hungry anymore." A voice called, bored from the hall. I looked, a girl, naked with spiky blonde hair and darkness swirling over the very front of her breasts, her entire arm and over her core. As if she couldn't be bothered to cover more, or she knew she was fit and attractive.

"Mind your own business!" The vampire sneered, but he listened, pushing off the stone wall over my head to walk toward the demon. I met the woman's eyes, thankful she stopped the attack but she blandly ignored me, turning from the cell door. The man's shoes glinted in the light in the hall, silent little bells adorned them. He was the man from the Archangels compound... He attacked me and he might have seen me kissing Meliodas!

Did he recognize me? I sat up, eyes adjusting to the dark as the door shut. The cracks illuminated but no other opening or windows were in here. As the dreary place came into focus, I noted I was the only female. Prisoners of war? There were a few others beside me. I hadn't been back among the goddesses for a few months and didn't know the state of things.

"Lady Elizabeth?" A man asked, softly. I turned to look, I didn't know him, but with me being who I was, it wasn't unusual to be recognized.

"Shut the fuck up." Another hissed, "Don't say her name. If they knew..." There was silence, a hush among them and chains rattled. I pulled at my wrists. With a little focus, I created a blade and all the shackled goddesses turned to me in alarm.

"Don't!" The man closest to me urged with gasping speech, as he could not catch his breath, "They'll take something else, an eye... a foot. This kingdom is heavily guarded, the Ten Commandments themselves..." I dropped my blade. "Don't heal your wings, Zeno eats them. Over and over. Just let them ache."

"Oh..." Meliodas had told me about Zeno's commandment. He hadn't mentioned the wing eating.

"Hide your magic." A whisper sounded. "Hide it for when our chance comes or they will extract it by force until nothing is left."

I didn't understand how they could, but I thought it wouldn't be the worst thing to wait and see how things were done here. The men grew quiet. The darkness was endless and nothing broke up the time. No one came, the door stayed closed and no steps sounded outside the hall. I shook from cold, tugging at the ruined threads of my dress, barely held together from the damage.

Food never came, the prisoners used their own magic to heal their hunger. A self-harming practice. It kept a goddess weak, eating their own power eased the aches and kept them alive but without nourishment, their power level didn't rise. Continued, we'd weaken to a point where there wasn't any power left to eat. With prolonged starvation... we would die.

"How long?" I asked, thinking it might have been a day but without the sun I didn't know. I felt a connection to these men, in spite of our silence, we suffer together.

"A week I think." The man chained to the far corner croaked.

"A few days" Another to my left spoke.

"Over three weeks, probably." Grumbled the wounded, waxy looking prisoner chained beside the others.

The remaining two didn't respond. The one man chained to the pillar didn't move or acknowledge me and I jolted him with a little heal just for him to groan in protest. The ones who spoke had each told me how long they had been captured, each guessing from the state of this cell and their tone of uncertainty.

The six of us were a shotty bunch. I didn't think they were ranked very high in our forces but I couldn't be sure in their current state.

"Are others down here?" I asked, but no one knew. The sounds were so similar to how they'd been when I was sleeping in the warm bed in Meliodas' rooms that sometimes I'd dream I was there with him. I'd forget for a few sleepy moments that our peace was over. Rumbling earth, bricks smashing, war cries and bursts of dark power from every direction. I knew it was louder at night and that's how I kept track of the days.

Two...

Three...

Four...

On the fifth day, the vampire came back, the door creaking as he looked the lot of us over. I may be weakened, but I wasn't defenseless. "Your blood is divine." The dark haired vampire stated, his outline surrounded by the fireglow in the hall, "I've been waiting for days to get another taste of you..."

"Derieri!" I shouted, pinning the girl I'd seen before from Meliodas' descriptions. I'd never met her but I knew of her. The Vampire smirked.

"Scream all you want, I like it best that way." His words meant more to me than a creepy threat as it stood to reason this vampire had waited until he was alone to come for his snack. That's all we needed to know, my assumption might be wrong but this also might be our only chance. We needed to get out of here.

I am not quick enough, the vampire lunged and bit down at my shoulder junction to my neck with quick moves I remembered seeing in the woods on our way to the theater so long ago and I stifled my scream at his frantic attack. I felt his spear power, the dark shot he'd hit me with all those weeks ago, impale me. I couldn't hold my reaction then and the vampire moaned against me in the midst of my cry.

Those of us who could, ark-ed, my chains disconnected from the shackles with my power. I returned the favor, my arch blade erupting into his gut with him atop me, impaling him. He released his bite with a suction sound against my flesh, a mix of pleasure and pain on his face with my blood on his lips.

The strongest, after me, was Lion and he gripped the vampire's hair, pulling him off me and with a snap, his neck broke. I hadn't expected him to come to my aid so quickly, but my thoughts caught up. "Don't kill him!" I rushed, and he released the vampire, letting him hit the floor with a thud. "We'll lock him in. Get Owlen. He needs help, he can't rise."

"We leave him, our best chance is to-"

"No." I cut Lion off. If I let him order me now he'd be in charge of this escape mission. "I know this castle, I know this city. You follow me." I went myself to the weakened goddess man, and with precision, I sliced the man from the pillar. Owlen's arms sagged from being held up over his head for so long and flopped to his sides uselessly.

"With all due respect," Lion started and another of us prisoners, Jay, chuckled. He was already holding up Tyson, another man low on strength. Lion cleared his throat, adjusting to my lead. "Right. I forgot your rank. Let me get Owlen, Bry can take up the rear." I nodded, looking over the rough lot of us. Nubbed wings, starved and in tatters. We'd not bathed, but not eating meant no bathroom needs either... small favors? We could make it though if they listen.

"We run before we fight. If I tell you to go, you do it. I am capable of great things, but I will never kill unless I have to. So if it gets to that point, you get home and have faith in my abilities to make it on my own." I was talking as if I could do a miracle, to save them I would be a distraction, expending all I have so they would make it home. Their nods led me to think they believed me.

We crept into the hall and I recognized where we were. This was the place I wasn't supposed to go in the basement. This is almost a mirrored replica of the hall on the other side that used to lead to the training cube. I took small comfort in knowing these men hadn't been prisoners when I stayed here with Meliodas, they were taken while I lived in Belialuin.

But... Meliodas was supposed to be here. There was so much power here it was hard to differentiate but he could be above me right now. Had he allowed this capturing to happen?

"The hall is clear. Don't use your power unless you have to, our light stands out in the dark." I looked back at my men, bleak eyes and Owlen's head lulled. "I'll heal us all outside the city limit." I worried doubly so after seeing these men in the light. The lot of them had sunken eyes and pale waxy skin from lack of food and sunlight. I'm sure I looked only marginally better. They needed to get out of here.

I knew the way, getting us up the stairs and I looked out into the castle with caution. I had formed this plan over and over while waiting for Meliodas to come. I thought he would realize where I was before we had a chance to escape, but I couldn't wait when I had a way to do this myself. We took Mina's route, one I'd taken a few times when things had been different. It led to the back courtyard. The main gates would be guarded by the Shields of Faith or the Commandments themselves so we needed to scale the courtyard wall. It was our best bet.

Of course, the quickest route would be Gowther. But the power emanating from upstairs is too much. It might be Meliodas but I had no guarantee with so many heavy players. It didn't feel like him, and that was enough for me not to risk it.

If I didn't have these men, I would sneak into Meliodas' suite and hope for the best but I'd never leave those that needed me. The situation must be absolutely dire for there to be prisoners here. If they were criminals the treaty clearly outlined they would be returned to their clan for the judgment and punishment. So the treaty must not mean anything anymore. We made it out the side door by the courtyard without passing a soul.

With me in the lead, I climbed the wall, no wings meant no flight but I knew Lion would be strong enough to heft up the others. The city looked how I remembered up here, but the streets were bare, the edges dingy with lack of cleanup.

"Elizabeth?" A lady's voice called out, I looked down and there was Pix, mouth hanging open on the other side of the wall. "What the fuck happened to you?" She winced, staring at me in fear "He's always been rough but, pulling off your wings? I heard he's been wavering into his assault mode for days but I never thought he'd-"

"Get out of here. Pretend you never saw me." I pointed for Pix to go in the direction of the gate and slowly, she nodded, listening to me, only looking back once to tell me "Good luck..." but she didn't sound like she had any hope for me. Did I look that bad?

She thought Meliodas did this. This was how rumors spread. When she went around the courtyard wall on the outside, I motioned for Tyson to come up. One at a time, Lion boosted them, the others assisting Tyson and Owlen. We lowered to the other side in reverse order. I felt much better outside the territory of the castle.

We got lucky with Pix. I should have asked if Meliodas was here but even so, it wasn't like we could wait and who knows who would show up if I just yelled his name. The lot of us took the back roads, dodging between homes and without our wings, paired with the disarray of the people still here, we blended in. I lead them to the broken barrier and I hoped the Albion weapons were still dormant. I hadn't seen any, which wasn't a good sign.

If they weren't sleeping...

The sun sets and my fear rose. At night, demons grew stronger. Perhaps locking that vampire away hadn't been the best of ideas, he's a loose end I shouldn't have left but killing someone, even a mean someone, I couldn't. Vampires needed blood to live and maybe he wasn't getting what he needed. I felt at my bite marks, unsure.

I changed my plans to heal us all when we were inside of our territory, when we were safer. My magic may draw in trouble.

Ludociels words rang in my ears and I found myself repeating them to the others. "The demons look to the skies for us, so even when I heal your wings, keep low." We went slow, ducking through the wilderness for a few miles, until we found a problem.

A red demon lumbered into our way, turning with a sloppy grin as he looked at the lot of us. 'I could do this, it wasn't a real thing as they were created to fight', I pep-talked myself. Meliodas had explained a little about them but the issue is how much magic I'd need to use and what attention I would attract.

I spun, facing my men and I raised my hands, healing them all. Wings, hunger, Owlen's missing eye, and Tyson's hands mend. The lot of them fluttered, awakening, the faster ones dropping into a fight stance but I stopped them. "You lot, go." I faced the red demon. "The others will come and-"

"Lady Elizabeth, we will fight and die beside you," Lion declared, a single long light blade appearing over his forearm. The others mirrored him, taking to the sky and the red demon wobbled from their barrage. They attacked before I could finish. I hadn't meant them to leave me, but to let me do this with minimal magic. Now, five different goddess powers flared with murderous intent toward this red demon. I spun to look in the direction we came, fearfully. I turned back and taking off in a run while urging the others to move just as speedily.

"We don't want the Commandments attention," I called over to their rushing forms as the beast fell, the ground rumbled. We reached the other end of the clearing when I felt it, a subtle shift of intense speed encroaching in.

"Lost little birds." a voice chided, chuckling. I remembered this one. The mustache man, or, lack thereof after my magic burned his hair away. We weren't far enough and I felt another heading our way.

I used my power to kick off under my heels and the others flew, ahead of me through the trees. On my feet, I wasn't as fast as with my wings but I hadn't the time now. I should have healed myself when I healed them but I'd been trying to be minimal. It cost me. They cost me. Hellfire shot at my heels and I gritted my teeth, knowing they were playing with me as I ran, weaving without a rhythm.

"Surprise!" The oval headed demon exclaimed, dropping down from the treetops before me, head tilting. "That's what we said, the first time we met, yes?" The child-like voice asked. "You're wings were delicious. Truly better than chicken." The demon laughed.

They were both here? The prisoner men turned back and attacked, all five rushing with blades high and I watched in shock as hellfire sprung from his hand in an arch across them all. A rainbow through the air, of black pain. No. No! The small demon stepped forward. I knew these two were Meliodas' friends, so I wouldn't kill them but I needed to save my people. With a surge I powered up my blades, I kicked off, hitting him across the head with both at the same time as his attack hits my friends.

"Leave them be!" I shouted, the mustache man made a grab for me. He appeared at my side and I ducked low, ark-ing at his torso and he was blown back. "Let them go and I will come with you." Neither seemed all that impressed. I dropped my blades, moving to stand between my fellow prisoners and the two of the ten commandments. Zeno and Anarak.

"Why would we agree to that?" The big one asked. "We could have six, instead of one."

"Sure, but if you let them go, I will come with you willingly. I'm Lady Elizabeth, the daughter of the Supreme Deity." I took a deep breath as the two of them looked to one another with scepticism.

"Don't!" Lion hissed, coming to a stand first and the others followed, struggling to their feet, already heaving.

"Run." I told them. "I can handle this. Get home." The others didn't move and I flared, my light shooting into the air and I pushed them away with the force, the two demons being blinded, stepping back as well. I made my point, my power was great but I heard trees snapping, huge beasts heading our way? Probably. "GO!" I shouted, and it was Tyson that slapped at Lions shoulders to get them to move.

"We'll come back for you!" Lion shouted, shooting through the tree lines.

The three of us left in the clearing, me and the two demons, were in a stalemate.

"Elizabeth..." The little one said as if tasting the flavor of my name.

"It does sound familiar." The big one responded. "No matter. We can catch those goddesses in a matter of moments, so unless you can prove your claim..."

"What about a contest?" The little one offered, "Two are on their way, that should be a challenge for her. If it goes too fast we can cut in."

I'm not sure what they meant until a Gray demon, face with pointed triangles emerged from over the tree line and focused on me. My magic was an attractant to these 'guardians'. Wait, he'd said two? A sticky tentacle slapped around my wrist, right above the shackle. Oops. In seconds the acid burned and the grey demon invoked a dark nebula before me. I felt the black power rip through my skin, my hair flying back.

With difficulty, I fought them both at once. I was unused to multiple enemies but slammed one down to focus on the other as we meet blows. I avoided the dark snow, dancing and at a disadvantage without my wings. I avoided the two demons attacks, weakening them each with my own blows. It wasn't until I hit a lucky ark at the Ocre demon's core that I felt like I was winning this. One down, one to go.

My success was short-lived as Anarak's darkness enveloped me, snaking over my skin in a slimy way, his tendrils held me in place as I took a dark nebula head on. My light magic counteracting it with an explosion that ripped the trees up around us. Roots and clumps of dirt exploded up into the air.

"I believe her." The childlike voice stated, his darkness evaporated from me. "Go back where you came!" He ordered the grey demon away and I struggled with my new bonds as the foreign, cold darkness restrained me. This didn't feel anything like Meliodas's tendrils, but there was some similarity to the cocoon he'd put us both in at Megadozer. These tendrils felt like wet paper that wouldn't budge and they flicked at my exposed flesh, violating me with a sick feeling. More so than when I woke to the vampire at my neck. How much more could I take? With my magic depleted paired with the starvation...

The two started their walk back, with me fighting the slimey tendril hold but being pulled along, when I felt him. He was a flurry of dark magic, I recognized it and knew right away he had never been at the castle when I'd been in the prison. Feeling him, my struggling slackened and for a moment I was pulled along with no resistance from me as my mind caught up with itself. The oval demon laughed.

"I guess it's up to the Captain what to do with you now." The childlike voice beamed.

"Run!" I demanded, he was coming in like a missile, the dark streak heading right for us. "RUN!" I pleaded of them. Anarak and Zeno looked over at me as if I'd lost my mind. "I'll try to save you but he's-"

The earth erupted, debris and flowers from my previous power exploded into the air and before I could blink I was sliced free from the darkness. His demon mark was a breath away from being a full circle, his hair was in chaos and blood matted the right side of it down against his skull. He was bleeding, an open chest wound with the tip of a broken dagger still embedded in him.

He stalked toward me like a black panther after a wounded boar.

Even in this situation, I'm elated to see him and when he's within my reach, I stepped to him. I nuzzled against the matted slickness of his hair, not caring in the slightest of the grime there. My elation at seeing him died as I knew we were before two Commandments. I resigned myself to Meliodas taking me to the castle. Maybe he would 'act' as if I were a prisoner. I'd hate it, but if it made his life easier... He didn't react for a breath, then he pushed me away from his person.

Meliodas gripped my arm, moving it straight to snap the shackle apart still at my wrist, repeating it on the other side. The metal bits clang in the dirt. I knew he was calculating something as there was no emotion in his face, just hard assessing. He felt my wounds. The acid burn, the bite marks and he tilted my head with harsh fingers guiding my chin. He touched my hollowed cheeks when his fingers moved up from my jaw. His onyx eyes narrowed, looking from me to Zeno, the oval-headed demon.

"Did you de-wing Elizabeth?" He asked, his voice so chilling even I grew afraid, my belly tightened.

"Elizabeth..." The childlike voice sounded behind me as if finally clicking the pieces together. I reached forward, touching Meliodas' bare chest. My hand glowed and the blade stuck inside his torso pushed out, clattering to the ground with my shackles as he healed. Roughly, more firm than he'd ever grabbed me, Meliodas removed my hand from him with a snarl of aggression. My heart raced at his reaction.

"Save it!" He commanded, shoving my hand back to my own chest and I flushed as he turned and walked away from me. Meliodas was lost and in its place was his furious demon in pure animalistic assault mode. What Pix said came to mind, how long has he been this way? Dread settled, but not for me. Meliodas' aura shifted, miasma expanded like a cloud around him and the two demons buckled under the pressure of his commandment. His tossed aside Giant Broadsword was gripped by a dark tendril and I swear, the night got darker as the sword flew to him.

"She's the Supreme Deity-" Anarak started but in a blink, he groaned in surprise and I turned just in time to see him fall to the ground. I didn't see Meliodas move and Anarak was already dying. Just like that.

"Meliodas." I whimpered, moving at a run to stand between him and the two demons. "I'll be fine, just let me go with the other prisoners and no one has to die."

Dark Meliodas' head tilted, eyes narrowing. "Let you go?" His cruel smile twisted, demon mark cracking down his right cheek.

"Just touch me. Leave them be and come here." I opened my arms in invitation but I was too late. I'd said the wrong thing. I'd given him more fuel to his raging inferno. "I missed you," I whispered but his dark eyes were focused on the childlike demon, Zeno.

Slowly, I edged back, toward the dying Anarak, as Zeno tried to explain about my wings, that his brother had been mutilated by the goddesses- he was avenging him. That he would have never hurt anyone 'Lord Meliodas' had wanted spared, that he hadn't realized she was Meliodas's Elizabeth.

"You caught her?" Meliodas asked, tone low and casual. He tried to conceal how violently he wanted to attack but I didn't think any of us were fooled. "Where?"

"A floating stage... Listen, you've been away but we should have told you before you left, the Goddess clan-" and I didn't have to look to know he'd been vaporized, I could hear him sizzle away to nothing sounding like bacon in a pan. These were his friends, these were people that Meliodas cared about! War brought out the worst in people and I should have been smarter. If I had the others run sooner...

Hell, if I had sat still in my cell! Meliodas must have been on his way home, where I had been. He would have found me. We could have made a plan and he wouldn't be lost inside himself. These demons wouldn't have to die. My whole plan cornerstoned on no-one dying when we escaped. Zeno had eaten my wings but he had been lost to his own demon, this knowledge, this understanding should be more well known. Appealing to a demons humanity, talking with them, it could change everything!

I reached forward, while Meliodas was busy with Zeno, healing Anarak and his dark eyes opened, glaring. He was lost to his demon as well. A black jet of energy slices out, wedging in my torso like a snake with it wiggling into me, going through me like a blade. A magical and physical attack? My spine severed, the darkness spreading like a disease inside of me without my natural defense and with all my effort, I told him "Run." Anarak saw me then as if truly opening his eyes for the first time since we met at Heavens Theater. His black eyes faded to brown and he looked confused, alarmed at his darkness in my torso and he explained "If I remove it, your spine-"

He's ripped from the ground, a great release of dark energy hitting at my side violently and he sizzled to nothing. The two were both gone in seconds when I'd struggled so much against one of them. Without the blade of Anaraks magic holding me together, my spine slipped apart and I screamed, falling back on the ruined nubs of my wings, my legs twisted under me. Blood erupted up in an arch over me as the cut spurt without Anarak holding its seal in place. My own blood slapped at my face. Meliodas fell to his knees beside me, hands coming forward to press to the open gushing wound as if he could stop it.

My scream faded and I couldn't focus. I gripped at his dark tendrils, trying to see but finding my eyes failed me. No, this wasn't blindness... Meliodas was leaking darkness around us. Hellfire sparked the trees aflame and I could see a dark haze around us. It rained hell ash and burning leaves.

"Align..." I hushed, and Meliodas' hair fell into his face as he dipped his forehead to mine. He screamed centimeters above my mouth, his expression twisted in pain. A dying beast roar that shook me, my anxiety spiking. "Meliodas." I whispered, his howl cut off and his gaze swirled as his lids popped open, as if he too were having a hard time focusing. "I'm not... going to die," I told him, not sure if it's the truth but he latched onto my words. "Align my spine," I breathed to him and he moved me slowly to lay flat and with one hand on my upper back, one steadying my lower, he lined up my bones.

I held in my scream as best I could, feeling my spine connect. Meliodas was panting from the effort to be so gentle with the vertebrae in his fingers. I flipped my hand on my stomach, and my magic doesn't respond. I winced, trying again and my glow emanated as I heal. This wasn't good. If I ran out of power now... Slowly I started knitting the tendons together, the veins reconnecting, the nerves cooling with the touch. This was too serious to heal the superficial wounds for Meliodas' benefit, but in his state, he was desperately in need of me.

I ran out of power, my glow faded and Meliodas' black eyes looked into mine. The wound was still open, my spine was intact but I would still die at this rate. "Come back... You promised you'd come back to me." I whispered and the green leaked into his black orbs as if that was all it took from me, a plea.

He looked down at me, pulling and spotting his blood covered hands and he panicked, touching me anywhere my skin wasn't marred- which meant very few places. "Did I... do this?" He asked. Too much disbelief and fear in his shaking voice. "I've killed you... Or couldn't save you." Meliodas gripped at his hair, pulling at the chaos there, my blood smearing through his locks before he hovered them over my body with uncertainty on where to touch.

"No." I reached up weakly to take his hand in mine. "You saved me," I reassured, knowing this was my fault and trying to think of any plan to fix it.

"I... I heard about Belialuin... I thought you-," He sucked in a breath between his teeth, "that I hadn't been there with you... I hunted down Merlin and I still failed, you're..." I squeezed his hand as his other came up to tenderly touch my face. "A vampire... my own people, the ten commandments... They went too far. I made one request and they couldn't abide. Brutalizing you."

"I need to go back to the goddesses, I'm not... strong enough to heal," I confessed my plan knowing the goddess city would be too far. Why was I never strong enough when he needed me to be?

A thought jumps to the fore of my mind. The troops!? He could find a healer there. Would they attack right away without realizing Meliodas is on my side? "The others... the escaped prisoners. They know some healing." It could buy me time until we made it farther.

His face tensed as he instantly launched into action with the start of my plan. His dark tendrils wrapped around me, holding my wound together as he lifted me into his arms. "Ah." I gasped, trying to hold back my reaction as my spine was stretched painfully. I can handle it. In a blink the world blurred, his miasma and leaking darkness faded, and a piece of it was left behind. I watched his face, the dark marks shrinking up his cheek, rejoining the mark at his forehead.

The demon mark stayed, but it was the only indication he was getting a grip on himself to find the others. "Lion, Tyson, Bry, Jay and Owlen." I whispered to him and he nodded, once, eyes ever watchful to dodge around the trees, his arms bracing and bouncing to cushion me from the impacts of his jump-running. It was a nice night, but I shivered, cold.

"Being with you..." I whispered, reaching up to touch his face and I frowned as I smeared blood there. "It's been the best part of my life." At my words his wide fearful eyes looked at me, so raw the feelings sparked in me too, a mirror reflecting his emotions.

"Stay with me!" He choked, tucking me closer against him, dark wings forming as he shoots to the sky, flying to cover the ground faster. An Albion roar sounded ahead and he shifted in that direction, so fast.

"I want to," I whispered, my hand falling from his cheek to rest at his shoulder and I slipped into a haze. Eyes open but everything became blurry, my muscles not responding and it was like... being asleep while awake. He growled, long and anguished.

With me in his arms, he killed the Albion with a thousand tendrils of darkness erupting from his back and tearing the beast apart. I could see the blurry shapes over his shoulder, the unfocused face of Meliodas and his lips were moving. The fuzz in my ears faded as the beast fell, crashing through the trees as if a wave hit them. Meliodas walked us forward, not paying any mind.

"Let her go!" I heard. I knew that voice. One of my prisoner men? He'd found them. Of course he had, Meliodas could do anything.

"Heal her." Meliodas pleaded, and I'm held up as if in offering. Meliodas dropped to his knees, his hair stuck to my bloody side as his head fell forward against my hip.

I could make out motions around me. Silver hair, a dirty smear and I gasped in pain when something hits the wound across my torso. They were talking, but my head felt so heavy I couldn't focus. My hand flopped at my side, and I felt Meliodas' cheek against my arm, under me. As the glow started at my core, the lot of them working together. Although wounded themselves from fighting their way this far, they do what they can. I heard phrases, some from the goddesses, but Meliodas' voice seemed to cut through the haze better.

"Sacrificed herself," Meliodas explained to something I hadn't heard. "Is she going to..." He couldn't finish, groaning from his throat and I saw over me the Goddesses shared surprised and alarmed looks.

The details were coming into focus. Lion had a head wound, the side of his skull smashed. Tyson's wing had been clipped again, after all the effort to bring theirs back so they could fly away, and it had been wasted. "The problem is the taint," Lion said. "We've beaten it back, healing her hemorrhaging, renewing her blood but none of us are skilled enough to extract the darkness."

My hand dangling between us curled up to pet Meliodas' cheek and he sighed, nuzzling into it, gasping in a breath as if overwhelmed. "Meliodas," I hushed. A plea and a lovers whisper all in one. At this angle, I met Lion's eyes, one of them not opening fully from his wound. Slowly, his brown eyes harden and he nodded, begrudgingly accepting.

"We'll take you to Stigma's headquarters," Lion stated, and the other's reacted angrily. I saw the appalled faces of my men. "Tyson, straighten that wing and endure. We're flying just above the canopy, taking the most direct route. Lady Elizabeth got us out, fought off two of the ten commandments, the least we can do is save her." He stopped, taking to the sky, raising up a few feet. "And in regards to her friend here... the Archangels can decide." There was less grumbling then, the lot of them rising up to follow Lion.

"I can move faster than any of you," Meliodas stated, seemingly reluctant to move his face from my hand that he stood slowly, tucking me against him, my head lulled to his neck. His dark wings expanded to either side of him as we rose to their level in the air.

Silence met him, no one responded.

They didn't trust that this wasn't a trap. With focus, I placed a kiss to the flesh of his neck and he shivered, arms holding me closer. My face rubbed against him. "The Light of Grace." I said, "The tower... in the Fairy King's Forest." My voice wavered, my head growing cloudy again. Was this the darkness inside of me? Uselessly my hands dangled, I needed one of them to touch my head so I could jolt myself with the energy I had left.

"I remember," Meliodas spoke, his face turning to press against mine, my breathing caught, hitched in my lungs. "Tell me where it is!" He demanded, anger taking over, I didn't see his face but I hoped his demon mark didn't move, the Goddesses would be less inclined to give in to him.

"It's a trap, he's faking his care for Lady Elizabeth." An angry man called, another agreed but it's Owlen that spoke up, as soon as he told the distance and location, he added, "Its surrounded by mist but head into it or-" Meliodas shot to the sky, dropping my legs and embracing my core, cupping the back of my head under his chin. My feet dangled before his own. Positioned aerodynamically, he shot through the sky.

He was heading into Stigma's base with this power and speed emanating from him. He was announcing his arrival. It's a call out to the Archangels, going right to the most powerful. This was suicide and tears welled, the wind pulling at the drops and they splat against Meliodas bare chest. He was still wounded from wherever he'd been before he found me.

"They'll kill you," I whispered against his skin but the wind was too harsh, the speed too much. He felt me, the fingers in my hair moving in and out of my locks as if comforting me? My head swirled, my vision blurring and I fell into the wake-sleep state, already limp but somehow Meliodas knew the difference... Dark energy was added to his speed, a streak of black trailing after him and his wings curved into blades as if slicing through the winds themselves.

I hoped Owlen hadn't lied. If I died, Meliodas would... annihilate them.


	34. Engagement

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Beta'd by BellaCreatura

Chapter Thirty-Four: Engagement

"...for Elizabeth I will do anything..."

My head pounded, the strangest dream of voices echoed in my head. Meliodas and Loduciel had been... negotiating over me? I shot up, realization struck as the words made sense. The fighting has started. The war... No, no. I shook my head as if to shake the thoughts away. I didn't want Meliodas to betray his people, not for me!

Where was I? The room was decorated in reds, the floors covered in lush rugs and all the luxuries were here. A tea set, a desk, a sitting area with cush looking furniture. An open doorway showed a bathroom and my wings fluttered thinking of a bath.

Wings!

I reached back feeling my feathers with reverence, so grateful they were back. Soft, fuzzy blankets were around my waist but I'm naked! I stood, my body aching so nicely with my stretch. I felt like I did after a fever. As if I'd been still for too long and my muscles had seized up. I had to find Meliodas. Before I could go searching though, I needed to meet my other needs, such as finding any clothing that fit so I wasn't flying around with my assets showing.

A chest of drawers had a few things. Pants and a shirt that were too small. It didn't button in the front over my breasts. I grabbed a strip of silk and tied it around my neck to cover the exposure like a scarf. I took care of business in the bathroom, noting someone had washed me. I flushed, dismissing the unease as I left the room all together.

The hall is tall, made for flyers but my door let out on floor level, accommodating for walkers. Was I somewhere the races coexisted? I chose a direction, seeing the paintings of goddesses with swords, arks and riding pegasus in great battle scenes. The walls were windowless. 'This must be The Light of Grace...' Meliodas flew me here in time and because of his speed I was healed.

Where was everyone? Empty rooms and empty halls. I went in a circle, ending up back where I started. One of the doors I passed must be a stairwell or a place for me to glide down. With another lap I tried all the doors, finding along the inside wall a looping over-large stairwell. A giant could use them they were so massive and I flew down, opening each door I came to in an attempt to find the main level, or a person.

"Hello!" I called out, hearing people on this level, two floors down from where I awoke. I stepped down to the tile, the walls a soft blue and the open airy feeling reminded me of the demon clan. The colors and smells though, reminding me of the fairy one.

"Lady Elizabeth!" A voice called and I turned, mid-flight to see Nerobasta, of all people. "I'm glad to see you up." She said, and her voluptuous chest bounced as she stopped before me, seeming to mean it. "I can bring you to Ludociel, I'm sure Mael and the others will be relieved to see you."

I followed, asking about Meliodas and she scowled. "Don't concern yourself with trash, Elizabeth." She chided and I bristled, my power rising up in me but she spun to open the massive door before us and a wide chamber was there. I'd been away too long, I had forgotten the feel of their scorn.

"You have no idea what you're-" I hissed angrily until I saw who all was in the chamber. Key council members, the four archangels, fairies, giants and a handful of Lance Corporals. Most smiled at me, others looked on with worry but Ludociel clapped.

"Elizabeth! Your dedication and sacrifice to your clan did not go unnoticed." Ludociel praised. "She was fatally wounded while on an undercover mission, one she excelled at. Her information will be vital in the upcoming battles." I flushed, not liking what I was being thrown into. These were the top Stigma leaders. "If not for her, we would have never been able to probe into the demon territories." I looked around. Gloxinia was here. He waved and I gave a little smile, weary that my letters had been used. I had tried to write as least useful things as possible. "Take your seat."

Nerobasta pushed me forward and I scowled at her with a quick backwards glance. Fine. Fine!

Slowly I walked in and I took a seat, sinking in beside Drole who took up most of the table on this side while sitting on the floor. His knee were up over my head and two other giants stood behind him. The talks started again, battle plans and little pegs on the table before us were moved to represent forces over a map of Britannia.

Our peace, the treaty, it's all over.

Silently, tears streamed down my face and I swiped them away, breathing through it. I wouldn't fight, I wouldn't add to the death. I have failed. While facing the Commandments especially. If I had gone peacefully or if I had done any number of things differently when escaping...

"Meliodas joining our side sparked their attack." A corporal spoke, dignified, and I stood up straighter. "He should be here for this." The man looked expectantly at Ludociel and I watched as he smiled.

"He's on a mission at the moment, he has tilted the scale in our favor. This is all thanks to Elizabeth, and her ability to appeal to hearts, just like her mothers." I flushed, growing mortified. He thought I had bent Meliodas' will... All eyes turned to me but my joints and muscles locked in place as I processed how much my people have changed, or... how much they haven't.

My heart stopped, my blood chilling and a low whispered hiss escaped my lungs. My stomach twisted in a knot. Meliodas was fighting his own people, but that wasn't what struck me dumb, it was the realization of what I've done.

The war started again because of me.

My decisions. My wounds and my inability to reach Zeno and Aranak sooner landed us all here. I could have tried harder with them. If I had appealed to their true selves! Or tried to speak to them, they might not have died. A round of 'thank yous' were thrown my way, a few tipped their heads and I had enough. There was nothing I had done that deserved praise.

"I don't want a war!" I proclaimed, standing. "We can stop this! Let us renegotiate the treaty..." I took a breath, "Where did you send Meliodas?" I demanded, looking at Ludociel. Mael, sitting beside him, cleared his throat and stood. No one spoke as he walked around the table.

"You've been through an ordeal. Let me update you on what is going on. Excuse us, she's been under for over a week and much has changed." Mael was calm, hand extending to me as murmurs sounded around the table. It would be nice to get a break and an update would be kind...

"Do tell her about the vampires as well," Ludociel ordered. "We'll meet later, for heaven's gate. Bring her with you, she'll need a full initiation to take her place beside us." I needed information, I needed to know as much so I could to make a plan and I needed Meliodas. That all rested with Mael. I ignored his offered hand, standing to go to the door myself, forcing him to follow me.

He did.

Mael and I walked and in the hall I flushed hot as he had to lead. I didn't know my way around so awkwardly, I let him pass but we ended up gliding together with tension sparking between us. He attempted to start a conversation but I ignored him. We glide down the stairs, passing a fairy and goddess duo in matching armor. On another floor, he led me down the curved hall to the front doors and once opened, we entered the fresh air.

We're in the Fairy Forest. The steps in the front were massive stones, leading down a mile of steps. The forest around us with trees so tall it covered the towers base, just the light shone through from the beam that towered up, but with the mists, it too would be refracted and hidden. This place, the 'Light of Grace' was named after Ludociel and his given power, gifted from my mother.

"Where's Meliodas?" I asked, and Mael frowned, having asked after my health twice and I refused to respond.

"He's doing his job, when the mission is complete he will return to base. The barracks are below, I'm sure you can request a council when he's back." Mael stated and I scoffed. 'Request a council.' I'd see him when I wanted until he, himself, told me otherwise.

"When will he return?" I watched Mael, looking for any indication of secrets, as if I could spot them on his smooth, angled face.

"When it's over... another week, maybe? Perhaps as short as a few days." Mael took to the skies and I followed, asking about the war, about how Meliodas and I arrived and what I could do to stop this fighting.

Mael tried his best, cushioning the worst of it with kinder words but I could see through it. The war began when Meliodas switched sides, to save me. He brought me here after killing his own comrades. With Meliodas's betrayal, the vampires rebelled, having always been subservient to the demons and they wanted their due. Thinking the demons were weak enough to be taken down without their prince. "We'd been in talks with the vampires, the siege ended two days ago and it was a failure. The demons prevailed and many vampires are now prisoners."

"Can we free them?" I asked. "Perhaps if we negotiated again we could have them released and set up on their own." Mael looked at me as if I grew a second pair of eyes.

"Why would you..." He stopped, shaking his head, "Your compassion knows no bounds, even having been a victim of one yourself, you still wish to save those leeches." Mael's voice softened and in its tone, something reminded me of Meliodas but I wasn't sure how as they didn't sound alike.

"How can we stop the fighting?" I looked at him expectantly.

"By winning," Mael stated, plain and simple. "If we can take out the forces no one else need die."

"So, your plan is killing all the demons so there is no killing anymore? That's... insane. I've met wonderful demons, children, forgiving soft-hearted men, determined and fierce women. They don't deserve to be eradicated because of their birth." Flashes of faces entered my mind. Mina laughing at me, Pix's concern when she let me escape, the men and women of my demon troop and the little sick girl, Delphine, with her weak grip on my hand when she'd recovered enough to reach for me.

"They eat souls." He replied.

"If driven to desperation! They absorb energy from the air regularly, its just when backed into a corner... their inner demon, it's hard to explain but its like they are fighting their own beast within and some have an easier time at it. Strength of mind, I'd guess?" I needed a demon to truly explain it. "They aren't evil if you just spoke to one over any length of time."

"Elizabeth, listen to yourself. If there is an evil beast within, then wouldn't that be a soul, an evil presence inside that needs to be freed from their host? It's a mercy to kill them." I flushed hot, his words dosed me in memories. Those were Ludociel's words, I hadn't heard them in so long I had almost forgotten.

"Don't say that. Who are we to decide!" I reached for him, grabbing his forearm in a firm grip to plead with him. "What if it isn't an evil soul inside." I thought of Meliodas, even in his demon form, although rough, he still put my need to heal above his own. Or, so tender in the bathroom when Zeldris had come, covering me with his tendrils to protect my modesty. "Isn't it evil to kill in any capacity?"

Mael stared, hopefully processing my words. Was he understanding what I was saying?

"If killing is evil, then Meliodas's sins surpass us all." He challenged and my hand fell away from his arm. My face flushed, burning.

"Ludociel has-" I started but I realized it doesn't matter, even if the two of them were neck in neck on who had killed the most, it was still wrong. Did war and fighting for your clan negate it? Hadn't I taken down that Ochre Demon, a weapon for war but... something alive? Where was the line? My eyes filled and Mael looked horrified at my tears, his hands raising as if to stop me from falling apart but it was no use.

I flew, taking to the trees for cover. Mael didn't follow and I was glad as I dipped under branches and glided over an oversized abandoned nest. Maybe I could find Gerheade, but I knew who I really needed to speak to. Meliodas. If put between a rock and a hard place, like I had been, fighting for my life... it's what had to be done, right? Kill. I feared I ended up being just like them.

I had people I wanted to protect and I failed them.

Both sides fought for their own reasons and killed for their own reasons. I couldn't hold them accountable for being reduced to a point I had been reduced to myself. It was my fault this war sparked. After all Meliodas had done to prevent it. My shoulders shook as I cried. If I had just taken the vampire's bite and waited, so many people would be alive right now, so many people would be home.

The vampires wouldn't have rebelled. The Demons and Goddesses wouldn't be raiding each other's villages. The map I'd seen had forces on both sides, armies on both sides... plans for more attacks and all I could see were memories of the aftermath of the battles, the bloodied bodies left behind. Ones I'd wait to heal, watching from a distance, it felt like so long ago...

The ripples of my failures went so far. Hurt so many...

Yet, my heart ached for Meliodas.

I knew, if he was okay, then everything would be fine... It's selfish.

As the next leader of the goddess clan it wasn't okay that I no longer put my people first. I would lay my life down for them, but I would let them all go if it meant keeping Meliodas. Regardless of who his enemy would be, I would be at his side. The deaths on his blade and the future deaths with this war raging were all small potatoes to keeping him alive and in my life. All I wanted was peace and for Meliodas to come out alive.

I wouldn't fight unless at his side. I could heal him, plead with the hearts of our enemies, and keep him in peak shape. A portable charger of health, energy, and endurance.

In the canopy, I found a thick, solid branch, looking out over the forest that sloped down from here. If need be, I would kill for Meliodas but it would be a last resort. Always... killing was evil, no matter the reason. War or no.

When the sun started its descent, I did too, walking to the Light of Grace. The moss was soft under my feet and I marveled at the overgrowth of wild vines, twisting trees and giant mushrooms. I only flew when I got to the clearing of the base to skip taking the stairs. I marveled at the massive structure with not a single window, glowing. Inside the entrance of the curved hall, Drole and Gloxinia were talking to one another and I flew up to before Droles face, beside Gloxinia.

"Lady Elizabeth." They both said and I greet them. I wasted no time, explaining everything I knew about Meliodas and I's goal. To end this war through peace. The pair of them looked on doubtfully, my words seeming like wasted air.

"Fighting is a part of life," Drole said, but agreeing with me. "The casualties are substantial, I don't know how to prevent that."

"Peace seems unattainable at this point." Gloxinia sadly spoke, looking into my eyes for a long moment. "Meliodas would return from the southwest." He pointed in a direction. "The troops would enter through the fog as they left the same way."

Tears of appreciation fell and I told him, "Thank you." but after nothing was spoken for a few minutes I felt the trickle of unwelcome, like I was intruding. As if they didn't want to speak in front of me, so I head back to my room, flying over the stairs and ending up where I awoke. This must be my room, after all.

Sleep didn't come easy. Merlin's rattling had kept me company, Estarossa's furry face wasn't pressed to mine... I had grown used to my time in Belialuin. The prison had been short-lived, not enough to ease the ache of missing the home I had made with Merlin. Before her, it had been Estarossa and Meliodas...

Now, it's just me. Alone again.

I woke to a knock on my door. One I ignored. The knock persisted and I sat up, remembering where I was. Maybe Meliodas had returned! With a rush, I opened the door and frowned when its Mael, hand in the air as if he were mid hit.

"Lady Elizabeth, I'm sorry to call upon you unannounced." His deep voice sounded, his hand came up to tuck his long silver hair behind his ear. "The Heaven's Gate is about to open and you've been summoned."

"Let me... get dressed," I flushed as I shut the door in his face, as polite as I could make that. I was in the too tight nightgown I'd found and I frowned down at myself. The sizes in this room were just one too small. Maybe a dress would suit better? I went to the dresser and rummaged until I found one. I tug it over, it stretches over my curves and I'm uncomfortable but it worked. I tie a handkerchief around my neck to cover my breasts.

I didn't have shoes, so I glided just a few inches over the ground. Mael had waited, which was good as I had no idea where they put the massive mirror. It had been kept at the temple but I knew Ludociel had been after it. How much had changed since I'd been away? I was about to ask Mael when the need for me too becomes unnecessary. I felt the heaven realm open. I could almost smell the floral scent and suddenly I didn't need Mael to guide me.

It would be just beyond that door.

We entered, the massive doors parted to one side as the two of us joined the others. Ludociel and Nerobasta were kneeling before the mirror, the face of it did not reflect them, it's the only visible hint that the glass was something other. The golden frame was carved with leaves that weaved in and out of each other in a mesmerizing pattern. The metal goddess figures reached forward, down and out with two dragons around the base of the huge mirror. Around the walls were velvet curtains as if the mirror would be offended if the room wasn't decorated richly.

Inside the room, the air was fresh, like an ocean breeze and I remembered Meliodas taking me to the cliffs, an orgasm of flowers blooming. It had been a hint of the power within me and that same leaking glow came from the glass now. No flowers bloomed, but I could feel it as if my power responded to this one.

My mother.

'My child.' A woman's voice sounded in my mind. 'You are strong to endure this long. You've survived when no other has before.' I stopped, mid-glide but Mael continued, bending his knee behind his brother. The others could not hear this.

"I'm not sure how to greet you," I answered aloud and Ludociel looked at me over his shoulder with such anger I couldn't help but burn with emotion.

'It would be wonderful to hear you call me mama again.' sounded in my head and I didn't know where to look in the mirror. I had called her mama? 'it has been so long.'

"How long?" I asked, gliding forward to hover before the center of the glass, crossing my legs at my ankles. Slowly, a silhouette appeared, a figure as large as the mirror, but her face was too bright. I couldn't make it out, or perhaps something was blocking it.

'It's been many years and in that time you have grown into a beautiful woman.' The Supreme Deity said. She switched from speaking in my head to address us all, "Ludociel told me of your many exploits. Of putting yourself at risk, of prevailing and even turning the heart of the Demon King's own son. A wise mark."

"I didn't use my power against him," I proclaimed, wondering if I should say much more. I didn't know my mother's goals.

"Your body then?" She inquired as if genuinely curious and I grew hot as a tendril of white trickling light escaped from the mirror. "The seal should have broken if you have laid with a man." The magic stopped before me and a small black fleck of something floats before me. "This seed will bloom as a representation of your purity. It's an old practice, do you know of it, Elizabeth?"

"...I do... but, please I don't want it." With the flower that bloomed, I could present it to someone, if they consumed it and coupled with me, it was a way of marrying. A very archaic practice because in the ancient days, if it didn't bloom you were unfit. I had Meliodas in my mouth, I've had his fingers inside my body and I wasn't sure how sensitive this heaven realm seed would be. Besides, once it bloomed I was supposed to gift it. It was honestly none of these people's business if I was pure and I didn't see a reason for this.

"Ludociel." The Supreme Deity said, and as if the two had already planned this, the Archangel stood. He turned to me, face much kinder than his glare at my lack of respect before my mother.

"It is in all our best interest that you take a man. You are of the Supreme Deity's blood, our strongest, or will be when the seal is broken. As the first to reach childbearing age, it is your greatest obligation to strengthen our clan with your ilk." His words were processed as if through a translator as my mind sludged through his meaning. I blinked, uncomprehendingly for a few breaths. Excuse me? I was to be a breeder? He continued, "The Supreme Deity herself has approved a match at my suggestion, the strongest man in our ranks, Mael."

In shock, I looked to Mael and stunningly, he was looking at me with wide eyes as if this was news to him, too. So they were throwing us in this boat together?! "No." I insisted, gliding away from the seed and away from the mirror. "I want peace in this realm. That comes before any child."

"Lady Elizabeth-" Ludociel chided but my mother interrupted.

"You are a compassionate person." She sighed inside the mirror as if that trait was a nuisance to deal with. "In time, that will fade, but if that is your requirement, I accept. When the war is over you shall present this flower to Mael." In a blink, the seed was pressed to my forehead and a blinding white light filled me.

My power, up to this point had been like a well, me drawing magic forth in bucket fulls from the crank of my own willpower. That cracked. Walls inside of me fell, the well crumbling apart and I fell into its depths with a scream as if the ground shattered under me, only I was flying. Physically, I hit the floor, my knees, elbows, and face catching the tile but inside the slap of my power felt like water. As if I dove into the waters at Megadozer over again.

An ocean had been under my well. A raging storm of power and I was small, a pinprick in its expanse. This was what I was capable of? A whale, made of light jumped through the ocean of my power, seeming to greet me and I recognized it. I had called upon this beast before and he had answered my call, the ark cross power had been his. Well, mine. This was all mine, he was mine.

I have awakened.

The seal was broken.

Wait... this was all linked to my virginity? Why hadn't I been warned and why did that stupid seed break the seal? I rose, panting as I separated from my ocean, empowered and glowing, my hair whipping around my head as if truly standing beside a volatile ocean storm. It even smelled like a sea breeze. At a moments notice I could dive in, but without touching it, I was myself again. Ludociel, Mael, and Nerobasta were all looking above me, attention captured by something else.

"As a child, I had to seal away your power, so you could grow. Become strong enough to handle its vastness. As you have never laid with a man your true power never awoke. In this time of war, we need your full potential." The Supreme Deity spoke but my eyes looked up to what the others were staring at. A flower, one that floated in the air where the seed had made contact with my forehead, spun on its axis.

So... I still counted as a virgin? Great. The sarcasm dripped in my thoughts.

The strange bloom was unlike anything I'd seen. White tips, with a dark purple/black core, the purple a line down each pedal with little blue spots in a circle around the dark center. Five fat pedals pointed in each direction, draping down as if in full bloom, in its prime. But looking at it, I felt... embarrassed. I didn't want anyone to see it.

"Don't look!" I blurted at the three still staring. I flew up to rip it out of the air as if covering my own core or private flesh. The bud was too big to fit in my palm but I crushed it, pedals breaking, pinching between my fingers. "I didn't want a purity flower, I'm not gifting it."

"It is your duty," Ludociel condemned, looking at me as if he resented having to explain this. He still spoke as if I were a child and it pissed me off. This situation was already tense enough, I didn't need him to look down at me too. I scowled, not about to back down.

"It eases my mind that you were not truly gallivanting around with demons." The voice in the mirror sighed, stopping my next words and I flushed all the more, wanting so bad to tell her just how much I had been. "Abide by the old ways, consummate and give your gift. Mael, consume the flower." She ordered.

No.

I look over and Mael stood, hands coming out as if to physically stop this whole ordeal. If I knew anything about Mael, he didn't like when social situations were hard to navigate and this was a whopper coming from our Deity. "I asked for your help, brother, but not this way." He groaned and I unclenched the flower, the pedals healing as if reblooming in my grip. In anger, I crushed it again, hoping with more force the damage would be irreparable.

"In time, you will see this is the right course of action," Ludociel explained and I had enough. I landed heavy on my feet, planting myself firmly as if that would cement my mind.

"I will not!" I stated. "I decide who I lay with. I will have children when the time is right for me." This should be given, I was my own person and duty be damned.

'You will abide.' Her voice echoed in my head. 'I won't allow your heart to be touched by such an abomination. I know where the taint in your flower stems. Its forgiven if you follow the course before you.'

The taint in my flower? The purple?

"That's what makes it beautiful, mother." I sneered her 'title', angry for so many things. Her absence, trying to use my future children, her forcing this purity ritual on me, arranging me a marriage and thinking I wanted to be forgiven for anything she thought of as a transgression with that 'abomination'! "Meliodas is-"

"THE SCUM OF THE WORST OF THEM, A DEMON WITH THE DARKEST OF BLOOD!" The mirror erupted with light, the glow driving the other three back, but I held my own against it, rooting my stance just as Meliodas had taught me, feet spread wide on the tile floor. "You've turned him to our cause, a great achievement, but you will NOT be with him." The intensity of her magic rose with each of her bellowed words.

"I'll be with whom I choose!" I challenged, daring her. Ludociel and Mael both called my name, one in alarm and the other in exasperation. They sounded far away from the winds harsh rush.

"You have been away from your clan too long, with time you will adjust." The voice in the distance called and when she moved, the light around her was growing. It's then that I'm reminded of Gowther. Trapped in a prison. Wasn't she too? Her power was too great for this realm, she was confined by her own doing. "You are not a child."

"Nor am I yours to command." I ripped at the flower in my hand, shredding the pedals and the bits are whipped away from the pressure around me. "I am not yours to humiliate, I don't need to prove my innocence to anyone! I will not breed war machines nor will I ever allow you to use my children as pawns." I moved closer, the force around me blowing the rest of my pedals, my hair, and clothes back. Thrashing with loud angry slaps, but I evoked my own power to resist hers.

"MAEL!" The Supreme Deity called forth, angry. I don't look back, steady onward in my intent, stepping closer.

"When she gives me the flower, I will consume it with honor," Mael spoke, clearing his throat in discomfort. "From her will." He maintained, defying the Supreme Deity with me. Mael may be clueless about a lot of things but he wasn't a bad guy.

"ELIZABETH, YOUR DEFIANCE-"

"No." I dismissed, touching the glass to sever the connection and the forceful magic swirling around me extinguished. The light and wind died, the gate closed. Unless she forced her way through or came here herself, our talk was over. Two things I didn't think she could do without help from this side and in the furious state I'd left her, I doubted anyone would try it to contact her for a while.

If her goal was to keep Meliodas and me apart, then it didn't matter the consequences, I'd take them. I wouldn't let that happen. The only thing I knew for sure was that I belonged with Meliodas.

Mael and Ludociel were arguing behind me. "-she would not give her body to that beast." A smug voice stated, seemingly pleased with what transpired. I looked over, Nerobasta was against the wall, eyeing the door to escape, the brothers a few feet away.

"You've pushed too far, I wanted your help but this is... if you keep her locked away, backed in a corner she'll..."

"You'll make her happy. Going against the Supreme Goddess would harm her standing, or be a death wish." Ludociel seemed so sure and yet, I didn't think my mother would kill me. I was too valuable to her, wasn't I? Doubt settled in, feeling as if ice slipped down my throat and wedged heavily in my tummy.

"You've pushed and pushed this treaty-" Mael was red-faced. Something I haven't seen from him, ever. True anger radiated from him. "You've pushed and pushed me!"

"Let's go in my study for this, Mael." Ludociel gripped his shoulder, pulling him along. "Nerobasta, Elizabeth." He nodded to each of us in parting but I didn't look away from Mael, who was staring at me with so much emotion I'm sure he's trying to tell me something. I needed to talk to him, without his brother. The door shut, cutting off our eye contact.

I felt something gentle at my core, a little warm tinge and horrified, I looked over. Nerobasta had my flower in her hand. Oh! Oh no. no! "Well, Congratulations are in order." She grinned, holding the bud up for me to take and I rushed forward, snatching it from her. I knew the symbology of this, but obviously, something more was at work. When I touched it I felt nothing but Nerobasta was the first person other than me to handle it.

Maybe that was why my core reacted? Oh... come on! How could I find out if the flower would get my slit wet if anyone touched it? I would only trust Meliodas to find out for sure. Nerobasta just made me want. I scowled back at the mirror, blaming my mother for burdening me with this flower.

"What?" I asked absently, fuming at the world but confused. Congratulations for what? My powers awakening?

"Your engagement," Nerobasta explained, looking at me just as confused, her cheeks flushed as well. I turned away, strolling to leave as she continues, "You heard Ludociel, it would be a death wish or the vengeance of the Supre-", I let the door cut her off, leaving.

I didn't want to be anywhere near Heaven's gate right now. My mother knew about Meliodas, knew more than she was letting on. The black-purple in my flower had given me away but I wondered if she read my heart. I hadn't thought there would be a reason for her to care about my choice in men, I hadn't been secretive about how I felt to anyone who asked.

With a heavy sigh, I yearned for Meliodas all the more.

The purity flower healed back to its original form and I tucked it between my breasts and arranged my scarf to cover it. My steps faltered as I realized... I dismissed her. The Supreme Deity, in all her power and all her wanting, she meant nothing to me. She'd abandoned me to this realm, sealed my power and now comes back into my life when I finally had something I cared about more than anything else? No.

The cold spot of doubt found a friend in dread, as that too settled at my core. I needed out of here. Desperately I wanted to go to Heavens Theater. My peaceful place, now filled with so many good memories and a few violent ones. Meliodas and I have been apart for so long and our reunion had been so traumatic and far too short. Tears fell and I left the Grace of Light, heading for the direction Gloxinia had pointed out yesterday.

Trees creaked, critters ran and I waited. Standing on the tallest tree branch to watch in the distance. I ate berries I found in the forest and ripped my regenerating flower to shreds over and over to relieve the stress. All while my mind replayed my mother's words into nauseating memorization. She called him an abomination...


	35. Campfire

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
BellaCreatura is so nice for Beta'ing for me. Thank you!

Chapter Thirty-Five: Campfire

I've been summoned for war-meetings each day since I awoke. Ludociel liked that a lady of my status stood by him, he said it gave the people a pure face to rally around. I hated him using my birth and the people's feelings for me against them. Troops returned, left and returned again over the next few days. The women guarded the city, patrolled the forest and hand-delivered missives between units, but the strongest of them fought alongside the men.

One among them was my old best friend, Jelamet. I'd gone to her, her unit had started a campfire behind the Light of Grace, where the troops ate and relaxed. In an instant, she'd gone cold, back straightening. "Lady Elizabeth." She'd greeted and I waved nervously as the men in her troop bowed to me unnecessarily.

Lion called out to me and I waved over a few heads to greet him back, a campfire over from hers. I'd seen the other prisoners around, each had wanted to fight again, each having asked to be my personal guard but I refused as I wanted that position open. All of them understood, declaring their lives mine, but to me it was needless. I had failed that day.

"Jelamet... please." She didn't have to be so formal. I knew she had made Lance Corporal but I'd bathed with her, shared my life with her. Neither of us should use titles.

Coldly, she asked over her shoulder "Congrats on ensnaring Mael too... At least you left that devil."

I flushed, my face burning. "I didn't!" I rushed. Meaning it on both accounts, but when no response came and the others in her unit looked on, I awkwardly stood there. I waited until I couldn't take it anymore and left, walking away with a heavy feeling in my chest. Slowly, I made my way to my spot in the forest, the tree branch that overlooked the southwest, the mist cut off my view but I would be able to tell when he came.

I was amidst my own people and I didn't think I'd ever been this alone...

I took meals from time to time with the two brother Archangels when I was caught in the tower and couldn't make my escape quick enough. Still, sitting next to them didn't ease the ache. Our talks were stilted. Ludociel swore his goal was to end the fighting. Mael had confirmed that all he wanted was for it to be over, so the goddesses could move forward, begin again. He'd put his hand over mine when he told me and I excused myself from the meal after that, unsure if he had been reassuring me or hinting at something I knew wouldn't happen.

I felt paper thin. From all of my problems, all of my failures up to this point because it was nothing compared to what Meliodas was going through. Fighting his own people? Joining the goddess clan! I couldn't imagine his grief, to have betrayed his own friends, his own family. I had no blood here and he had a brother, one that cared for him.

Zeldris's attempt to reach out to Meliodas after he'd returned from Purgatory flashed in my mind. The troop of kids Meliodas had trained. Tears welled, but I was so used to them I let them wear their paths into my cheeks. What if Meliodas had to go against one of those young demons he'd trained? They had grown to tolerate me and Groder idolized Meliodas. The image of them facing off in battle, of Meliodas twisting and cutting the boy down with his giant greatsword... I mourned for everything Meliodas had to do.

Even Zeno and Aranak.

He'd told me about them, mostly in warning, but they had been together for so long. The two now-dead commandments had been taken by isurprisei/. Meliodas turning on them had not crossed their minds until it was happening. If I had been stronger or if I had had my full powers awakened back then things would be different.

My spine straightened. If I had coupled with Meliodas fully, before he left, I would have had my true power awakened... I groaned, tears fell as I slapped my own forehead. Although, how awkward would it have been for my power seal to break during our first time? I stilled. What if my power would have hurt him? Would it have unleashed differently if it had broken through sex rather than a purity flower?

I tried to put myself in the situation Meliodas had fallen into with Zeno and Aranak. If I had to kill Mael or Ludociel, any of them, to save Meliodas, I would be a wreck but I'd make the trade. My tears fell harder.

A tingle spread up my spine.

I stood on my branch, toes up as I watched black silhouettes enter the fog. Dots grew into blobs. A handful of them. Was this how many had been sent or was this all that made it back? My heart sank but beat so fast. Meliodas made it back to me. He was iherei/. I didn't know how I knew, but I could even pick out the silhouette shape that was his. He stopped, could he feel me too?

I rushed through the air. Over the treetops and dodging a fairy girl as she shot up through the canopy to see who was intruding, inadvertently blocking my path. I was halfway to him when he broke through the mist, in full armor, the others came through a few feet to his right, gathered closer together.

He knew. I watched him remove his gauntlets, tossing them to the dirt and grabbing the horns of his helm to pull it off. His hair stuck to his head from wearing it so long for a whole moment before 'ping' the two locks that never fell right, shot up. I smiled, going faster to reach him, moving closer and reaching forward. In a crash, I smashed into him. His sabatons slide across the earth back a few feet. It hurt, iit hurt so nice.i/ His metal armor unyielding as he caught me.

"Yo, Elizabeth." He quipped, voice so light and happy that my heart lifted. My arms weaved around his head as I pressed his face in my chest and I rubbed my cheek across his wet hair. I had missed him so much he smelled amazing to me. His hands roamed up my backside and he chuckled, squeezing my butt with both hands. My tears fell into his damp hair.

"I'm so sorry..." I told him, trying to smoosh us into one person and his voice was muffled in my chest. I adjusted myself, easing my grip. "If I would have waited for you... I should have known you'd find me but I didn't feel you at the castle, the vampire-"

"Shhhh." He hushed, wrapping me up as I collapsed into him, feeling everything now that I felt safe to do so. "Not here," Meliodas told me, and I took a breath, holding myself together by a hair's breadth. "Let me see you."

Reluctantly, I let my grip on his head fall, pulling back. He grabbed my wrist, stepping to my side to look at my back. He ran his hand down my wing, turning me with his guiding touches. I twisted so he can see my back but kept my eyes on his face. He spoke at just above a whisper, "Did you drop into a fever? I worried with so much... damage..." His green eyes darken but when they flicker to me they are clear as the open skies.

"No." I smiled, "They are over."

"Over?" He repeated, a little disbelief to his tone. It was in a soft way, where I knew he wanted to know how I was so sure of it.

"My power has awakened. Apparently, it was-" I looked around to the other goddesses that had returned with him, all still in full armor. Most were staring and some of the fairies were in the trees around us, gaping. "Well, I have so much to tell you... but let me fix you up."

I reach for his face but Meliodas tilted to the side, avoiding the touch.

"I heard its a kiss that makes it better." His eyes were twinkling and I giggled, holding our bodies closer to press our lips together, chaste and sweet but full of my healing glow. This was how we should be. I'd missed it so much I prolonged the contact just a fraction of a moment, flushed from the brief intimacy.

When I pulled away, his face and hair were refreshed, all his wounds healed but I hadn't felt much beyond a few scrapes. His eyes were closed, lips parted in a weary sigh and his expression reminded me of how he looked after he came, satisfied. I took his hand. He collected his gauntlets, putting them in his helm and tucked it under his other arm as we walked behind the rest of the soldiers ahead. His massive broadsword was long ways across his lower back.

He told me of their mission. Of protecting a city at the outskirts of the territory and escorting them as refugees. I knew from his light tone that what we said here was being listened to. So, I told him about the Light of Grace, of being invited to the war council, that I was the face of Stigma now that we were here. He winced and I nudged him, soft, knowing he had it so much worse.

I shouldn't complain, not even slightly like that.

We reached the Light of Grace and we all went around it, to the back. Meliodas had to check in with them and I followed, hand in his as we headed toward the barracks. The others of his unit entered the building, throwing off their armor before the doors shut but we diverged and went our own way. He lead us to the farthest fire pit. Drinks were already being passed around and hunted game sat in a pile. Meliodas grabbed a rabbit, nodding to the goddess behind the meat, and I looked up. It's Tyson. We shared our own greeting, Tyson looked between us with judging eyes and I frowned after I turned away from him.

Meliodas and I maneuvered around until we found a campfire free of people. We were at the back of the clearing, the others rowdy laughter filled the open air. For a brief moment, it reminded me of drinking in the bar with our Demon troops. There was the same passing of the brews and the rough-housing with one another. We really weren't that different.

Even the stares were long and bewildered. Here though, they were for me being with a demon. With hesitation, Meliodas let go of my hand to start a fire.

"I'm sad to say my cooking hasn't improved." Meliodas joked before the kindling, a dagger was pulled free from his belt before he undid his sword to stick in the ground vertically with a swift plunge. He released the blue-ribboned handle, coming to a seat on a fallen log, his back to the trees and facing the others. He started skinning the rabbits, smiling at me.

"Then I'm in for a treat," I smiled, moving to sit next to him, my thigh touching the cuisse over his. I meant it. I'd rather eat his food than be without it, as that meant I was without him. Meliodas removed the fur, draping it sticky side up over the cut log beside this one. He snorted humorously, watching me as he took the few steps to the fire and spits the rabbit on a stake to roast.

As soon as he's finished, I started a long explanation of Merlin, starting with her losing Gregor. He removed his armor, the quilted off-color gambeson coming into view as he stacked the metal. I cried for him, for Merlin and when I told him about Estarossa, he winced, grasping my hands. I apologized so fiercely, hoping he wouldn't hate me. "I should have listened to her, she tried to tell me her plan before she went but I had no idea... Maybe if I wouldn't have warned her away from it so quickly."

"You didn't fail. Merlin didn't pick a side, and she's fine. I found her hiding in the pleasure district of Bellford." My tears stopped, trailing down my face in a final line. Wait, the pleasure district? I flushed, moving my hands to wipe at my drops.

"That's... I suppose," I relented, confused and knowing I failed because so many died... Estarossa died. "But the goal had been to prevent this." I waved around. "The war started because of me, you've lost everything." I curled forward, feeling so much that my chest closed and my breathing stopped. My elbows rested on my knees as I held my own head up in my palms.

"No," Meliodas consoled, kindly. His hand wrapped around my back as his other guided my cheek to look at him, my hand there dropped away. "I have what is most important." We stared, my tears fell silently and he caught them, at my chin with constant little swipes.

I was most important to him? A mirroring of what I felt. Steel shot through my spine and I felt my heart solidify in its knowledge of what I cared for most. I'd protect the other things important to him with everything I had if it came to that. I didn't want him to suffer in order to be with me. How cruel a fate that I couldn't suffer with him!

"We have to end this war." I insisted, voice hoarse, "before you lose even more." So we could be together and taste what peace was like again, like our time at Belialuin. "Drole and Gloxinia agree, they will help." Meliodas looked me over.

"I haven't forgotten." He whispered. Meliodas knew. I could see it in him, in the set of his shoulders and the stark look in his eyes. If this war didn't end as peacefully as it could, our chances of saving them all from destruction or of us being together how we wanted were very slim. It smelled like something burning and Meliodas jolted to collect the Rabbit. With a smile, he gave me the least ruined bit and we ate together.

Night had fallen, the soldiers turned in or they were too drunk to move as they passed out around their dwindling fires. The noises died down and when Meliodas started a hushed review of his time away from me, I knew he felt like no one was listening in. Precautionary whispering aside he'd hear if anyone stirred or approached. He told me about the Commandments, about the treaty breach and how he refused to allow any attacks. Demons were missing, women and children. The mystery was still being uncovered when he'd heard about Belialuin, how he thought he'd lost me... "and everything lost meaning for me..." He choked out, voice bleak.

He pulled me to his padded chest with his hands in my hair, my ear to his pounding hearts, and he breathed me in. "I'll do anything to prevent that feeling... if you're okay, then everything is alright." I gripped him, telling him how much I missed him, that I was so sorry to make him worry. When his breathing returned to normal, he released my head. I shifted down to rest in his lap and he played at my hair. The crackling fire the only sounds between us.

"You're power awakened?" He questioned, curious.

"It was sealed," I whispered, turning to my back to look up at him with his fingers tickling at my ear. "Of all things, it was linked to my virginity." I hushed, face boiling with heat. His fingers stopped moving, his thighs tense under my head and his eyes grew wide with... hurt? Why? I lifted my head, thinking my skull must be too hard. I adjusted to sit beside him, and strangely he stayed frozen in his spot, fingers still splayed as if my head were still in his lap.

"Elizabeth..." Meliodas speaks, his voice choked. "I... you understand that..." I bent forward, trying to read him, my face hovering before his. "You've lost your virginity?" He asked, incredulous.

My face burned. "Of course not!" I blurted, louder than I meant too and I dropped to a hush. "You've been away how could I do that on my own?" I questioned. Unless there was something else I didn't know "can you do that yourself?" His breath released, his frozen fingers gripped into a fist, face easing. Realization struck like lightning.

"You thought..." I leaned away, facing the fire, hands clenching together over my chest. The petals of the flower squishing from the pressure. How could he think I would do something like that. "Meliodas," I started, confused and hurt. "I wait for you." Had I not been clear enough? With a little maneuvering from him, his forehead pressed to the side of mine, eyes shining.

"I jumped to a conclusion with that phrasing," Meliodas grinned ruefully. "I thought maybe I'd been gone for too long and you..."

"Turned to another?" I frowned. i'Is that... what people do?'i/ I thought of Jelamet and her being with a man already with someone else. Had they been apart too long so it was okay to touch someone else? That wasn't right for me. I knew it in my heart so why hadn't he known it about me?

"Wherever your mind wandered, it needn't have." His hands moved to my cheeks. "I only want you, Elizabeth. I hope the feeling is mutual."

"You should know," I stated firmly, eyes narrowing and he chuckled, soft and low to keep quiet.

"I'm sorry. Please, explain how your virginity-seal was broken without popping your cherry." He stated, and he's forgiven with his handsome face tenderly gazing at mine. We shared a smile in the soft, kind way I've grown to cherish.

"Pop a cherry?" I whispered, shaking my head so not to get distracted and pulling back as a 'nish nish nish' chuckle escaped him. "My... The Supreme Deity found out about you. Well us." I told him and his chuckle halted instantly as if listening for danger near. In a hushed rush, I explained about Ludociel, the mirror, the flower and how my mother arranged a marriage for me. His eyes hardened and I rolled mine.

"I told her no. She's furious with me." I continued with a shrug, "I'm not certain what the flower does but it's something connected to me, a humiliating way to verify I hadn't 'lay with a demon'," I mocked. "and when-" I paused, thinking of a way to explain how it felt when someone touched it or looked at the purity bloom.

"Can I see it?" He's curious.

"It's... I feel strange about it, it has to mean something more than just what I know." Slowly, I untied the scarf at my neck and tugged it free. With a little flare, I pushed my boobs out, the flower in my cleavage showing. "What I know, from ancient archaic stories... your intended eats it before you lose your purity as a gift on coupling night."

"You goddesses and eating flowers." He chuckled, expression soft. Meliodas looked at the flower, his eyes on it making me warm. I resisted the urge to cover up as I explained, "The purple, at the core... that's you, The Supreme Deity had, uh, well, not been very excited about that." I snorted a laugh, looking down at it myself.

"I think it's beautiful." He confessed, I looked up from the flower, spotting his hand an inch from one of the petals, on its decent.

"Don't." I warned, just as his finger slides down from its core along the line of his purple-black 'taint' on the lowest petal. My core quivers and I fell forward from my seat, knees hitting the ground in a little thud. I gasped, my back stretching up and my hand moved across my torso to cup myself over my dress. My core pulsed, as if he were touching my clit and working an orgasm from me. Rough hands grabbed my wrists, pulling my hands from between my legs. I'm lifted and I arched into him, trying to find some friction but firmly, I'm placed in his lap, held still.

The sensations start to fade and I shuddered, panting breaths as I looked up at Meliodas from the crook of his arm, his other hand gripped my wrists together. I wanted to use him to slack my needs.

"You're right," Meliodas groaned, eyes moss green as he looked me over. "It's definitely something more. My guess, a way to control you because that was a passionate response." He let out a long breath. "Don't let that blossom out of your sight. Not ever." He admonished, brows coming down in harsh angles over his green, critical eyes.

"I want you to touch me." I moaned, trying to pull my hand from his grip and he growled, tucking me closer to his neck. The skin under his chin, it begged to be attended to and I kissed him, open-mouthed, breathing hot.

"Elizabeth..." He sounded pained, untucking me but keeping me in his lap. My thrumming nerves eased, my core still yearned but not unbearably so and with wide eyes, I grew hotter with embarrassment.

"Sorry," I whispered, pinching my eyes closed to try and reign myself in. That was more intense than when Nerobasta had been full on holding it. Was it a difference of lady and man, goddess and demon... or because I was already inclined to want Meliodas? Perhaps it was timing, like from first bloom compared to waiting so long to be consumed? "It's been on my person for days, I knew it was important but I didn't realize it could do that."

"Not your fault." He croaked, his voice easing from strained to kind through his sentence. "I should have taken better care."

With my wrists released, I tucked myself into his neck, my hands around his shoulders. "I don't want to be apart again," I confessed to him. "I'll find a way to fight with you, or you can be my knight, now that Estarossa is..." My voice becomes thick with emotion. "If you want," I amended.

"A knight huh?" He asked and the sky opened up, drops of fat rain slapping my face and sizzling in the fire. I'd been so focused on Meliodas I hadn't noticed the changes nor the hints that a storm was coming in. Some of the drunks groaned loudly, waking. "Come on." He put me on my feet, gathering his armor and I helped, tucking pieces under and in my arms. I followed him to the barracks.

We were dripping when we entered the hall in front of the living quarters of the soldiers. Meliodas stopped me at the second door along the wall. "Lots of naked men in there, let me take this." He went in to unload his armor, coming back to gather what I had in my arms to take it in as well. I could see through the door a line of weapons but not much else and I guessed that was a good thing. Without his armor, he returned, clothes tucked under his elbow.

"Lead the way," Meliodas said, pointing down the hallway opposite the way we came and I'm unsure what he meant. "Elizabeth, if I'm to be your knight, I plan to guard your body every hour." Oh... he wanted to go to my room. I flushed, embarrassed and he chuckled. "I'm glad, that after everything, you still pinken so sweetly." His knuckles came up to brush at the apples of my cheeks and I watched his eyes swirl with emotion.

"This way," I guided. We climbed the stairs slowly, taking our time and I asked about what happened when we first arrived, me wounded and him a hot rocket of demon power.

"I got you here, Ludociel agreed to heal you for a price, I paid it and they sent me off the next night. They did grant me a visit, to verify you would live but... you were in rough shape. Round the clock healers to get the death magic out of you." He sighed, reaching up to feel my calf as I glided beside him. "They hadn't even started on your wings and you... your face was twisted as if you could feel it all, even with their assurances you wouldn't remember it... You felt it, isn't that what matters?"

I didn't know. Maybe? I dropped to my feet, taking his hand in mine and walking with him. "I don't remember. I can't remember anything after you shot us through the sky like a falling star. I think that is the fastest I've ever gone."

"Honestly, me too." He admitted, we shared a strained smile. I started pointing through halls and explaining what was where, which doors I knew and how to sneak around. When we reached the floor my room was on, I told him how to get to the mirror.

"If someone asks you to go in there, or to follow... just, know what you're getting into." I stared at him, worried and I shook my head. "Honestly, if I can help it, I'll be with you as often as I can be." A hollow feeling sunk to my core and I tried to shake it as we reached my assigned room. I opened the door with a flourish.

We were alone. We haven't been together for weeks but it felt different. Instead of the heated impatience to feel one another, I felt like the threads holding me together were unraveling. He tossed his bundle of clothes to the chair, pulling off his gambeson from his torso, then his pants which left him naked. I couldn't seem to look away, tears fell and I wiped them away when he started to look over to me.

I folded up my scarf, putting it on top of my dresser and I crushed the flower, shredding it to pieces before leaving the crumbles beside the scarf. It had become a nighttime ritual and by the time my dress was pried off me, the stupid flower had already reformed. At this point, it wasn't that impressive but Meliodas moved to stand beside me, watching it.

"What else have you tried?" He asked.

"Ark, blade, stomping on it and angry yelling." I quipped and he laughed, smiling over at me. Soon, I was too, as we were both naked looking at my purity flower. "Wanna try your hellfire?" I asked and he shakes his head no.

"You might actually feel it, at your core." His voice was reserved. "You're pretty little pussy will never know what that's like." Oh, right.

"Then... would you want to..." I mumbled, having a hard time meeting his eyes but I forced myself to and with a whisper, I tried again. "There's this thing... that Goddesses do... It's an old way of doing things..." I took a breath. "Meliodas, would you eat my flower?" I asked, gently.

He laughed.

Full belly roars erupted from him and I covered my face with my hands as it burned with the intensity of my blood-rush. My eyes grew wide and it hurt, my skin so tight and an 'eeek' escaped my throat. He didn't understand what I offered meant, he couldn't or he wouldn't have reacted like this.

"Right, it's weird. We don't know enough about it." I dodged around him, flying up over to the bed and using my foot to pull the covers back, blankets still rumpled from my night before. Shaken, I went to tuck in but Meliodas' naked body impacted with mine, rolling in the air for me to land on top of him. We bounced on the mattress and our bodies aligned just so, I sat. My waist over his, legs straddling his hips and his hands found my bare breasts.

He's hard and my core responded, growing slick. Oh! Oh...

"Elizabeth." Meliodas muttered, "I will eat your flower like a fanatic at your shrine, ready to worship your body with everything I have." I flushed, growing warmer and I think he could tell as his dick pulsed against me. "I think though, with everything that's happened in such quick succession, we are both too emotionally raw to make any kind of life-binding decisions." He paused, breathing through his nose. "I know what's important to me, but I want you to be sure before we take this step." His hands roamed down, across the underside of my breasts and over my torso. With Meliodas firm under me, the sting of rejection ebbed. I relaxed, my palms resting on his pecks to look down at him with my hair fanned around us.

"I laughed, I'm sorry, but it feels so surreal." His grin was soft, his eyes like wide open windows. It was my favorite thing about him. "I've been so eager to plunge into your sweetness, to take you over and over, making it last for days with no end and here... with you asking me so reverently, in such an iElizabethi/ way, for me to have you. I can hardly believe I'm prolonging it."

"Meliodas," I whispered, with yearning and his face pinched.

"I need to hold you." He murmured, lips tilting up deviously. "I'll be sleeping pressed against your wetness, the very best of tortures, all of my skin needs to feel all of your's." With a flip, I was on my side, off him and he found the ends of the blanket, wrapped around his arms like wings. He opened the blanket over us and tucked himself in at my breasts.

"Okay," I whispered as he settled between my legs, his breath tickling my peaks. There was no way I would be able to sleep like this. His arms wrapped me up. "My hearts racing." I admitted, "can you hear it?" I asked and he pressed his ear to my chest.

"Like a hummingbird." He muttered, kissing me there softly and he didn't move, his breath evening out with his ear still pressed to my chest. I run my fingers through his hair, pressing myself closer and I sighed, so content. Sleep didn't come easy for me, not with the sensation of his body so close to mine. Meliodas, though, must have been exhausted as his grip grew slack, his face became peaceful and his breathing heavy. He had already fallen asleep.

"I've missed you," I whispered, cradling him with affection. "All I want is this."


	36. Unexpected Discovery

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
BellaCreatura is a dear for looking over this with me. Thank you.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Unexpected Discovery

"Lady Elizabeth!" A voice called, knocking at my door. "The war council will convene in an hour." Groggily I rubbed at my eyes, feeling Meliodas roll from me, his hardness slid against the outside of my most sensitive spot and I shivered. He laid on his back, blanket tented at his bulge and I stretched out, not ready to get up. Meliodas groaned, low, his hand coming up to reverently feel over my stomach and up to my chest.

"I'll be there," I called out thick with sleep. Meliodas pulled away, stretching. "I took a guard, I'll let him know too."

"Good. I'll inform the others." The voice outside my room replied. Meliodas stilled, arm over his face and I frowned looking over at his profile.

"I should have asked if you want to go before I said anything... Are you angry with me?" His arm dropped from his face as he turned to me, smiling. He was sleepy and adorable.

"No." He whispered, "I know what I need to do." I wasn't sure what he meant, his fingers brushing my cheek. "I need to kiss you." He rumbled and I grew warm, sliding my breasts over his chest, pushing forward with my feet to meet my lips to his. It deepened, mouths parted and tongues touched so softly.

Hand roamed all over, legs entangled, his groans spurred on my gasps. My toes stretched at the sensations, my core clenched at nothing. His mouth left mine and my breathing panted as he trailed open kisses down my neck and my breasts. "As much as I love kissing you, that's not what I meant." I flushed, his palms pressed at either of my knees and he continued to trail his open mouth kisses down my body with my core presented for the taking. "See why you need to know all the dirty words, Elizabeth?" He murmured against my skin.

It was like we'd spent no time apart. Halfway to an orgasm, his tongue worked me over with expertise. "Tell me you're mine." He breathed, hot and needy, knowing I was about to fall into the pleasure and with a firm flick, I tumbled.

"Meliodas..." I groaned, his words lost in the swirl of mindless white pleasure. Waves of it taking me under and I basked in it, adoring being like this with him once more.

When I was back to myself he was looking across the room on his knees, between mine. "You didn't glow." He muttered as I bent forward, tucking my legs behind me, intent on him in my mouth. Riding the wave of emotion that followed my release, I kissed the tip of his hardness before I started. "The flo-" I cut him off with an eager dive, my mouth slid over his member. I held my hair back and gave a lick of my tongue at his head.

I was too greedy for him, I went right for the goal, wanting to taste him.

"Fuuuck." He groaned, stretching his legs out, leaning back. I moved with him, not wanting to stop, up on my elbows as I positioned on all fours, bare ass in the air. "This view... I could look for days."

I sucked, licked and worked his cock with my mouth. He tensed, pulsing in my mouth and I knew how to take it now. No more drips down my face, not unless I wanted them. I swallowed and swallowed, basking in his uninhibited sounds. His harsh breathy hiss, his groan and I wished I could watch his face while he came like this but I didn't want to let go of him. He was finished and I kept at my ministrations, he was extra sensitive after. I liked when he arched his back like this, for me.

"Mercy." He pled and I popped him out of my mouth, kissing him along the vein and nuzzling my nose into the coarse blonde locks there. Meliodas chuckled, sitting up and unexpectedly a little slap sounded in the room before the strike stung. He... struck my behind? I froze, feeling my ass jiggle from the impact. It pinched but there was no lasting pain. Huh.

I straightened up on my knees to look at the little pink outline his fingers made and I felt it, moving my fingers over the mark.

"I've always been a boob man myself." He explained, his fingers joining mine to feel my rear over his fading mark "Lucky for me you are well endowed but seeing your perky ass, I have such a hard time picking my favorite part of you." I was still unsure if I liked being slapped, and in the name of science, Merlin having rubbed off on me, I asked, "Will you do that again?" My voice shook and I pushed my rear out toward him. His hand stilled on my behind, his breath catching. I needed to know if I liked this.

"Ask me to slap your ass." He commanded, low, kneading my skin like dough and I grew hot. The thought of me saying something so naughty amped up my nerves. I didn't think I could, but he waited and I gripped his bicep to hold my rear out easier.

"Eeehh..." I struggled to work through this. Did I want to be slapped that badly? It had been unexpected and I wasn't sure if it was sexual to me. "Will you... please, slap my ass?" I whispered, voice shaking. Meliodas groaned, kissing my head with affection and breathing me in as if scenting me. The hand on my behind shook my cheek for a moment before, slap.

I watched it, expected it, and my flesh does ripple like a stone was thrown into a still pond. Huh. So close to Meliodas' torso, I hear his low throaty groan and I flushed, aroused by his reaction more than the actual slap. If he liked it so much, I would take all the slaps he'd want to give. "You feel so good under my palm. Heaven is your skin, Elizabeth." He muttered and I giggled, moving to tuck myself into him. His arms came around me and we settled back into a lazy snuggle.

"Oh!" I pulled away, alarmed as I remembered where we were supposed to be. "We need to go." He grinned sheepishly.

"I'll be late to everything with all this perfect creaminess at my fingertips every morning," Meliodas admitted and I agreed silently as I got up to go to my dresser. "Watching you move... this is why I couldn't resist when you dove into the falls. My entire body responds to yours."

"Stop..." I whispered, my core grew warm again. I pulled a drawer open to find something that would fit and at eye level I saw my flower resting on top of the dresser. It's different. "My body responds to yours too," I muttered in awe while looking at the new growth. From the purple-black core, five stamens were growing from it, curling at the ends in tight spirals. They were pretty.

"You didn't glow when you orgasmed, but your flower did," Meliodas spoke, rustling fabric sounded behind me. I poked the springs and frowned.

"I didn't know it would change," I grumbled, picking it up. It filled my palm differently. "Is it bigger?!" I exclaimed, growling as I smashed it against the dresser. I had to try harder now that I knew it could change.

"I'm fond of that, be gentle," Meliodas protested, coming at my side. He's dressed. A green button crop top coat that showed his ripped abs and matching pants with a chain dangling from his side. I covered my mouth to hide my teasing smile. "I don't have my own clothing." He defended, his grin spreading, not at all ashamed.

"Me neither," I frowned while looking into the drawer with unease. "Everything is a size too small." He pulled a button up dress free and I shook my head no. "That one I can't button over my... uh, chest," I whispered the last word and his smile tilts sideways.

"For sure, this one." He held it out to me and I accepted, knowing I could tie my scarf long enough to cover myself. I buttoned it, dressing in front of him and when I noticed him watching me, I fumbled with the next clasp. "Let me." Meliodas pulled the fabric and it does barely close over my body until it gets to my breasts. He took far too much pleasure in struggling to tug the dress front over my bust.

When he brushed imaginary dust off my chest, my hips and my rear, I finally swatted him away. "What?" He joked, innocently and I shoved the now healed flower into my cleavage and tied the thin scarf around my neck.

With both of us presentable we headed out.

Meliodas didn't have a thing to his name outside his massive Giant Broadsword. I realized then, with slowing movements, he really did leave everything behind for me. I knew, but the abstract was coming into focus. Meliodas had protected me, sacrificed all he had and I hated how happy I was that we were together, working for the same goal, in the same clan.

My longing for him was over, at a heavy cost, and my relief settled heavy with the knowledge I put my own feelings over so many others.

Everyone in the meeting chambers had already gathered and started. Our morning shenanigans must have taken longer than intended. A few of the Lance Corporals stood but Gloxinia laughed, waving at us coyly using his fingers close to his chin. Drole wasn't here. I guessed he might have volunteered to fight. There was only one seat left and I flushed as Ludociel stood from the center of the round table.

"I shouldn't be surprised you've appointed another dog as your guard." His cool voice broke through the murmurs and I flinched as my heart grew heavy. Estarossa... Ludocial exhaled a long, weary sigh. "Lady Elizabeth, your persistent disobedience hasn't gone unnoticed."

"Nor has your persistent annoyance." I hissed at a whisper and Meliodas grinned, being the only one to hear me. "Everyone, this is Sir Meliodas, Meliodas this is the Stigma Peace room." I touched his arm as I waved over the table, adding a Sir before his name in hopes to establish respect from everyone.

"Yo." Meliodas waved, speaking in a light friendly tone.

"War room." A lance Corporal corrected and I turned from Meliodas with narrowed eyes to stare him down.

"The goal is peace," I stated, firm.

"Let's not get into this again," Ludociel spoke, impatient. "Take your seat, Lady Elizabeth, we have heard from the seventh and fourth units. It seems the humans are taking the brunt of the demons aggression." Pointedly, he looked at Meliodas as if he should be held accountable for his clan's actions.

The others started up their discussion again, pointing to the colored pegs as updates were read off scrolls.

Meliodas took my hip as we walked to the last remaining seat, space where Drole usually sat just a wide empty spot beside me. I wouldn't leave Meliodas to stand, so I stopped at the table, motioning to Meliodas to take the seat if he wanted it. A wide, wicked smile spread across his face and I froze. That expression meant something naughty.

"What a wonderful idea, Elizabeth." He said, taking the seat and with his hand still on my hip, he pulled me into his lap. It was like the tavern in the demon realm, seemingly so long ago. He pressed my hips close, angling us to look over the map before us and my face burned as everyone stared, their jaws slack.

I heard a murmur, not trying to be quiet "I thought Mael and her were-"

"No." Gloxinia, of all people, cut off the comment. "It's always been Meliodas and Elizabeth, Mael's known that since Megadozer. If he were here he wouldn't disagree." I tried to relax against Meliodas, moving my arm to his shoulder and sitting against him as his hand wrapped around me at my back while his other pointed at the table.

"The yellow pegs, those are attacks?" Meliodas questioned and I confirmed it. "The humans could be the target for a few reasons. Grayroads may be seeding new lesser demons or they are looking for something. When I left we were looking for disappearing demons, it could be their investigation into those missing, or this could be an attempt to rebalance the scales of power now that I'm fighting on this side."

My hand on his shoulder gripped. He looked at me and I shook my head no, trying to tell him he didn't have to do this and he smiled softly. I returned it the best I could until the hand on my back snaked around my ribs and gripped my breast. "Eep!" I yelped, but no one acknowledged, too intent on the battles on the table or Meliodas' thoughts on the motivations behind the demons.

"They are searching for our stronghold." Ludociel spat, "The attacks here, are in and outs." He pointed to the others across our territory and into our allies as well. "Each one here was lead by a commandment. Fast, thorough and the skirmish is always over before our big forces arrive."

"We shouldn't be looking where they've been. Following their trajectory..." Meliodas shifted forward, rubbing his semi-hard self against my thigh. "If we can protect enough human settlements it would slow them down, prevent more seedlings and more importantly, save the most lives."

Meliodas...

"Tell us about the commandments." Ludociel demanded and I flinched, slowly glaring over at Ludociel but the other Lance Corporals nodded, agreeing with the Archangel. Even Gloxinia seemed to agree, as I looked over the table, not a person here thought it was wrong to put Meliodas in such a position. Another spoke up, "We've allowed you here. Prove your allegiance."

"He's already-" I began, flushing, I took a breath so as not to exude my frustration. "If Meliodas says he's on our side then he is. I trust him most in this world," I stated simply, and that seemed to ease some of the others as a few leaned back in their seats. Not near as many as I wanted, but I'd take it. I didn't look at Meliodas, but I reached across to touch his side as if I could protect him.

"Elizabeth has already given us what she knows about the Commandments." Ludociel stated, a smirk on his face. I froze, frowning at his cruelty. Did he think Meliodas didn't know? I would assume the same thing of my spy...

"Did she?" Meliodas asked blandly, but relented as his fingers trailed up my spine between my wings. "I'll tell you which power each of the commandments holds, and how the curse activates, in the hopes of saving you lot from that fate," and he does. I watched the side of his face, gripping his shoulder and wishing he wasn't doing this. I barely noticed him squeezing my boob with his free hand as he emphasized his points with the other hand waving before us over the map. Did Ludociel have to twist the knife?

Why was Meliodas letting him?

"And your own?" Ludociel asked. "You've betrayed your brethren's weaknesses do you refuse to confess your own? How do we fight your commandment?"

"I don't have one," Meliodas answered. "I abandoned it. As for my weakness..." He grinned, leaning toward me and I blinked, wishing he wasn't in this position. His hand grabbed my other breast in his palm and he wobbled them both around.

"Eeek! Meliodas." I hissed low, pushing his hands down with both of mine but he grinned all the more as he simply grabbed my behind. He roamed, using a single finger to trail across my inner thigh. At least it was under the table. My face was on fire as the meeting went on.

We were dismissed and Gloxinia asked to speak to Meliodas, and then, so did Ludociel. Of course, he agreed with a sheepish grin, shrugging at me as I told him I'd wait outside in the hall. Everyone else was leaving and I slipped out, wondering what they could want. It seemed like separate things but maybe not? I flew around in the hall, worried he was being reprimanded for something for over ten minutes. Ludociel came out and stopped in front of me, flying higher so I had to look up at him. As if this man needed more people to look down on.

"Will you be fighting now?" He asked and I didn't know what he meant. "Meliodas is a soldier first, he'll be dispatched where he is needed. I'll allow you to join him."

"Allow me?" I asked sardonically, a new confusion mixed with my irritation. Ludociel didn't respond, looking down at me with expectation. A smirk on his face as he waited and I sighed, he had me and he knew it. "I'll fight with him." I relented.

"Our people will be inspired if their own Lady is putting her life on the line." He gloated as he glided away, looking over his shoulder at me. "All that power shouldn't go to waste." Ludociel smirked arrogantly but he hadn't forbade me from being with him. Maybe he was coming around? Meliodas had done most of the talking in that peace meeting, a lot of it about how to fight his own kind... yet I never would have thought Ludociel would encourage me and Meliodas in any way. It's through fighting sure, which was good acclaim for his war, but still... Some growth from Ludociel was better than none.

Gloxinia and Meliodas stepped out together and their smiles invited me over. "Reminds me of our treaty talks, yeah?" Gloxinia said, grinning as he glided up. "I hope you don't mind me rushing off. I want to update Gerheade and tomorrow I'm heading for Ivanloake." He nodded my way, asking me to check in on his sister as often as I could while 'they' were away. I frowned, but he's leaving and I focused on Meliodas.

"When are we leaving?" I inquired as he started walking back toward our room with his elbows up, hands folded together at the back of his neck as if he didn't have a worry in the world. I glided after him, flying above. He looked back and up at me but I was waiting for his answer. If he was going, I would be too.

"Tomorrow, early." Meliodas grinned, eyes dancing and I dropped a foot in surprise.

"You're... okay with me fighting with you?" I needed reassured. He stopped, half turned toward me.

"You'll get mopey if you're cooped up for too long and I know it's pointless to fight with you about this. I can see the resolve in your eyes." He turned away, walking forward and I smiled at the back of his head. In a rush I flew forward, hugging him from behind, dropping my feet to the floor as my face pressed into his shoulder. He laughed. "I need to set up supplies, get my sword, meet our unit and plan."

From his open shirt I trailed my fingers down his abs, feeling over the indented v muscles above the waistline of his slacks while pulling away and straightening as if I hadn't felt him up. I took a card from his deck. "I'll come with you," I chirped, taking to the air in a rush when he turned around with the playful deviance I was used to.

"As if I could ignore you feeling me up!" He hummed while mock jumping to grab at me.

"Why not, I do it all the time when you feel me up in public." I reproached, taking off as fast as I could for the stairs and Meliodas was close behind. He caught me easily in the stairwell and in a fluid of motions I couldn't keep track of, my wings are to the wall and his face was under my dress. He rubbed his nose up the front of my underwear with a tilt of his neck. Heat spread and I felt my body ready for him in a slick rush. I felt him groan against me there, but I didn't hear it. "Meliodas!" I whispered, scandalized as he breathed me in with a deep inhale, his mouth opening over the front of my panties. His teeth grazed me and his hot exhale had me squirming.

I heard voices coming up and their shadows play on the wall. From Meliodas' movements, the seams were coming apart on my sanity and I thought, 'who cares who sees as long as he touches me.' In a blink, three Goddesses in armor were flying over while Meliodas nonchalantly held my hand and pulled me, dazed, down the stairs. He'd moved so fast, quick as lightning, and now he's acting as if a moment ago he wasn't a breadth from my bare sex!

Flustered and after a few steadying breaths, I realized where we were. We were on the landing for exiting this floor and I stopped. There were archives here, a library of information. Maybe following him around while he took care of his business wasn't the greatest idea, not when I had things to figure out myself. I didn't know the first thing about organizing a troop to defend against an army.

"I'll meet up with you later, if that's okay?" I asked him, flushing when distractedly I looked over, his head was tilted to the side and I leaned forward to kiss him, soft. "I'm going to find out about this flower." He smiled.

"Why don't we start what we finished." Meliodas pushed his hips forward and his erection was on display before he stood with his knee bent forward and it's hidden once more. "Oh." I found myself walking backward to stare at him a few moments longer. "Later," I whispered, flushing with the promise. I waved shyly bye and I smiled when he waved back with a soft expression I couldn't place. As I turned the corner, I watched him turn down the stairs to return to the barracks.

Almost immediately, I wanted to be where he went, but I pushed it down along with my stirred desires. If I didn't sort out this flower, Meliodas and I might not go any farther sexually and that wasn't acceptable. As long as this flower was harmless, we could move forward. I'd be damned if I'd let my mother get between the two of us. Although, if it was anything more than a purity flower, I didn't know how I could tell. My magic was awakened but my mother's was godlike.

The first open door I came upon was a storage area with boxes and old armor shoved in the spaces of the room. It was silent but I was not surprised as I'd hidden here to escape eating with Ludociel and Mael often enough. Because of this, I knew what I was looking for. The library room. I entered under the archway, smelling the parchment and ink while looking over the shelves. I liked it here as it seemed no one ever walked through here or visited.

It took me awhile to find how these tomes were organized and a moment longer still to find a book that even came close, called 'coupling traditions and acts'. The book creaked open, dust wafting and I flushed seeing the inked image of a man and a woman in a frog-like position, the man's member inside the woman. "Oh!" I tucked the pages against my chest, looking around but the rows between the shelves of stacked scrolls were still empty. No one was here.

There weren't chairs but there was a stack of cushions propped along a wall and I pushed one over with my foot to take a seat, back to the wall, facing the archway so I could hide my indecent discovery. I flipped to the index, finding the first section to be pre-coupling rituals and the third row from there it said 'The Bloom of Innocence'. "Finally!"

I turned to the page, a few flowers were inked on the paper but under the drawings it said each bloomed uniquely. A seed, from the heavenly realm from a certain pod, would only bloom if first touched by a virgin. Hm, so the seed had been untouched. I read on, about the theory behind it, the magic and I skimmed, trying to find the effects of it.

There! Okay... When consumed, the male would be gifted with an aura of protection, speculated to be linked to the woman's feelings? An old scratched note in the margin said 'faded with time? Or emotional changes?' barely able to be read, the indent more noticeable than the ink. A few rows down another scratch was there and I shifted the book in the light to read 'swl lvik' no... swirl like? I just couldn't tell what that chicken scratch said. Nothing was here about a flower growing later after it bloomed nor that touching it was sexual. It seemed in those old days the flower bloomed the night it was given. A part of the pairing ceremony.

The temple maidens used to be required to prove their innocence and their flowers would be on display there while in service. I shuddered, no way. That was way too intimate. It's eternal, as there were cases of death not fading the flower, nor the aura of protection for those that consummated the union- although rare.

Of course, nothing was in here about a demons reaction to eating one, or how to destroy one. Two of my main concerns. I frowned. Nothing has been normal for me, why would I expect my virginity to be normal? I sighed, my head falling to the book as I hunched over it in my lap. There was no magic words to dismiss it or reabsorb it.

I read about the ceremony. That it was a few words, the flower would bloom and be given to the partner, who would eat it. We skipped all that, thanks to my mother. He just had to eat it and... couple me. We could just hope for the best? Was it worth risking an adverse effect?

What I knew of sex so far, I definitely wanted to move forward with Meliodas. Perhaps we could without the flower being involved? Maybe it would die if I lost my virginity before it was eaten. With the thought a heavy grip squeezed at my throat from the inside. If it granted an aura of protection, the power source being my love for Meliodas, which would be endless... I wanted him to have that.

He needed it, in his position.

I flushed, looking around to make sure no one was here and I turned the pages to the inked images. Instantly my core grows warm, a twinge of need spread across my slit. There were so many ways to have sex. Her on top, him on top. Spooning, laying, sitting and when I turned the page I moved closer to the book. The man standing and her bending over. Against a wall! It was getting more and more complex. Her upside down. Him standing above her. He was a bridge with his back bent upward and her on him like a horse.

The next page, I covered my mouth in perplexion. My rear end could be... No, it must be the angle. I tilted the book to the side and it was confirmed. I didn't know a person could have sex with their bum. There was no information about it written, just illustrations and with how many pages were left to this book I realized just how much I didn't know.

"Elizabeth." I jumped, the book flew into the air, pages flapping loudly as my other hand slaps at my face in alarm. Noooo. Meliodas was already halfway in the room, with no effort at all, he snagged the book from the air and with raised eyebrows, he looked at the cover. Then to me with a clear questioning look. If he opened it...

I lunged, kicking off and using my wings to propel forward. Within arms reach I stretched for it, boiling hot with dismay. In a blink he was gone, I gripped at the air before me and a smack sounds in the room before I felt his hand on my behind. Mid-air, I spun, landing a few feet away and from my momentum I slid back, my wings spread wide to slow myself. This game reminded me of Booru.

"Hm." Meliodas teased, "What _have_ you found?" As if he doesn't have a care in the world he strolls over, pushing all the cushions over and sat on the pile. When he went to open the book I flushed, folding my hands and walking over to him slowly, watching his face. His eyebrow quirked and a 'nish nish' laugh escaped him as he flipped through a few pages. "Oh, my innocent little goddess found something that piqued her interest."

"It... did explain about the flower," I defended, brave enough to sit beside him with our knees touching and just as I reached for the page I saw the image of a woman sitting on a mans face. Oh... With shaking hands I flipped to the flower section, having to go back when I went too far. "I... only looked a little, wondering about... what to expect and all."

"Naturally." Meliodas chortled, tone too light and I narrowed my eyes at his neutrally blank face. After a moment, he smirked before starting to read. "Hm, can I see it again." He used the corner of the book to point to my chest and I brushed the scarf aside to show him my flower. I grew warm with his gaze on it. "Your's is beautiful." He noted, "It begs to be petted and I don't see that mentioned. Nor your reaction to me touching it."

Surprisingly he also flipped the next couple pages to the ceremony it mentioned at the end of the section on the Bloom of Innocence. Did he want to... do something like this?

"I think... it's because I've kept it uneaten for so long." I whispered, looking to the door to make sure no one was here.

"This whole floor is empty. Books and storage." Meliodas noted. He looked at me, flipping the book open to a random inked one. She was on all fours, her lover between her legs, on his knees but sitting up, while holding her rear as if thrusting up into her from underneath. "Do you have any questions?" He asked too innocently and shifting back.

"Not... about this one," I whispered, even knowing no one was around I felt like this was too private.

"Which one?" He stretched his legs out beside mine and placed the book between us, one side each over our touching thighs. My hand hovered and I took a shaky breath. Sweetly, he placed his hand over top the back of mine. He flipped my hand, placing a kiss on my palm. "Let me be part of this." He smiled, rubbing his cheek along my bent fingers he held to his face.

"You'll laugh at me," I whispered and he grinned.

"Probably." He admitted and I snorted a chuckle, covering my mouth and nose using my free hand to stop the sound. With a long look, I conceded, knowing he would be the only one I could ask about this anyways.

"Well... I, uh... only got so far." I flipped back, looking away with an 'eeep' when it showed a few men and only one woman in a picture... all of her orifices at once?! Meliodas snickered as I rushed past it, landing nearer the start of the inks. The open picture was a woman on top, slit at his face while she had his hardness in her mouth, laying on him so they could kiss one another at the same time.

"You had a question about this?" He asked, and already his voice was dancing with laughter. His palm rubbed down his opposite thigh and I spotted his straining erection in his pants.

"No..." I stammered. "The next one." I was unable to raise my voice any higher than a whisper, retreating my shaky fingers from the pages and folding them over my chest in weary anticipation. The flower pressed to my chest as it dislodged from my cleavage a bit from the movement. With a steady hand he turned the page, but when the paper was standing vertical, it stopped.

"Oh, Elizabeth." He groused, joy dancing in his eyes when I met them. So... you could do that? My eyes widen, fear and so much curiosity filling me. "What's your question, in particular?" He asked and my face burns as my lips flap uselessly. Slowly, I shook my head no.

"I guess I just... realized how much I don't know," I told him. "I always knew I didn't know but this is just the first few pages of... coupling... What we've done isn't anything." I sighed, a slow drop of sorrow pings inside, sending ripples over the still ocean of power within me, echoing a little 'plink' in the echoing silence.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas was soft, taking my hands to place on his chest. "None of this matters." He waved his free hand over the book. "But I need you to know, there is a special place in hell for me. Because taking your innocence, one little step at a time, I am thrilled about it. Your unashamed exploration, your candid noises... Without your own experiences, I get to open up this part of the world to you. It's like finding a treasure map, one that actually leads to your own personal greatest joy and I found mine."

Those clear emeralds were back and I felt tears fall. I was his own personal greatest joy? "Oh, Meliodas..." Then he opens his mouth again, ruining the moment for me. "Although I think we should start with traditional sex before we move to Anal. I appreciate your enthusiasm, Elizabeth... but slow down, yeah? First, you pressure me to take your virginity and now this." His head shook from side to side in reproach.

"What?" I gasped out, had I pushed him? I couldn't have. "You're joking!" I half asked and he nodded, his eyes dancing and I slapped at his shoulder. "Meliodas!" I huffed, crossing my arms as he flipped to the next page, laughing but I'm more interested in the next set of images than him making me all flustered for his own amusement.

I studied the two-dimensional people. Sitting backward? Hm. The other page was him holding her up by the thighs, her arms braced on the ground as he stood, entering her. "Oh." That one looked interesting. "There are so many ways to do something that seems so simple," I whispered, scandalized at my own thoughts, my core was actually responding to these faceless inked images.

He chuckled, turning the pages every couple moments. "Oh!" My hands rose to my face. "Not that one." How did she twist up like that? Was he pulling her hair to keep her up or was she using her thighs to hold herself steady? Wings were required for that one. Shocked, I looked at Meliodas and he was already watching me, eyes moss green and twinkling.

"You like this," I whispered, warm and I knew the feeling sparked from these pictures, they were affecting my desires. Meliodas tossed the book aside, his hands coming up to my face as he rose to his knees and kissed me. He moved so fast I think he'd been waiting for this, prepared. Slowly, while his tongue invaded my mouth with hot sensations, he guided me to lay on the cushions. He was already hard, a solid rod pressing against me. I didn't care that we were in a common area, nor that anyone could walk in. After seeing that, I wanted my skin against his.

I fumbled with his buttons, opening up his half shirt and he went for my scarf, untying it and when he pulled it free, his knuckles brushed down the front of the disheveled flower there. Instant orgasm. My back arches against him and I groaned into his mouth, gripping his shirt to keep myself from floating away. Even my toes stretched as my insides imploded with white hot pleasure. Meliodas pulled away from my lips, staring down at me in pleased surprise.

"Fuck, Elizabeth. This flower has its uses." He reached for it and with speed I didn't know I had, especially in my mid-orgasm state, I gripped his wrists, stopping him. With furrowed brows, he met my half-lidded eyes and I grimaced as I sagged again, letting him go, my arm falling away.

"Yeah, but it drains my energy..." I replied shyly, "and I want us to go a few rounds before we have to leave tomorrow." I sat up to kiss at his neck and unbutton his pants. He groaned as I moved the flower off to the side, out of our way.

"A few rounds?" Meliodas mushed out loud. "Hmm... if that's what my lady wants."

I hoped this floor really was empty as I wouldn't describe either of us as quiet.


	37. Mission

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Chapter Thirty-Six: Mission

In the middle of our two-day trip, flying low over the trees, we stopped for the night. I was expecting Meliodas to revert into his commander personality as he had with the demon troop, but he turned to Lion to lead. The other three knew Lion and everyone seemed more comfortable going to him. Meliodas seemed to prefer it that way.

Our mission was volunteer only, as apparently protecting humans came low priority, which I figured was why Ludociel allowed me to come. A show of me doing something in the war effort after years of me being against it and it got Meliodas off campus. Last night Meliodas had outlined the duties of our mission. Ludociel told him from the beginning, when I'd been dying before him, that he'd be sent to fight often and as far away as possible.

I told Meliodas he had been too useful to Ludociel and not to do that anymore. Meliodas laughed, eyes dancing and he'd kissed me on the bare shoulder before I said, "It's what I do, give him barely enough so he doesn't push. Ludociel is trying to get peace, so we are on the same side but he's... war hungry. Sacrificing others for his end means very little to him, he thinks it's justified. The cost isn't worth the end if no one is left." Meliodas listened, somber but agreed.

The town we were going to seemed on the trajectory of the attacks, it was our job to set up an escape route and hold off the demons long enough for the others to escape if it came to that. The six of us were adequate for the task. We were halfway in our journey when we stopped to set up camp. The lot of us were tired from the journey out, having flown ourselves quite a distance.

Two of the fighters went off into the woods to hunt for a meal and Meliodas started a fire. I wanted to be useful, so went in search of some fruit or mushrooms so we could skewer them. Meliodas smiled when I told him, Lion though frowned before Meliodas came to my defense with, "She can take on anything she comes across in these woods," and I flushed with the small praise. Most people coddled me, but not Meliodas. With my ocean of power just under the surface, I really could handle myself and it was nice to be on my own in the forest.

A little farther than I probably should be, I heard bubbling water in the distance. I followed the noise, not having found anything edible thus far. The trees grew lusher, green growth amidst the dark ground as it grew springy under my feet rather than firm. It was easier to find food walking, but I rose to a glide, creeping between the trees to find the source of the noise.

I found an oval spring. It bubbled in the center, about the size of my bedroom at the temple. The sides were rocks. As if the earth opened up here and water rose from its depths. Steam played in little swirls over the clear water and I rose over it, looking down. It was so clear you could see the rocky sides all the way to the bottom. In the deep distance of the water, I could spot green stringy plants and stones. With a fingers touch, I felt the temperature. Just under hot.

"Oh, that's nice," I whispered to no one.

I've flown all day... I refreshed myself and Meliodas, but soaking would be wonderful.

Maybe I should go back and tell them? No, Meliodas would just peek or try to join me and then it would turn into something more. We had troops with us, including Lion. Meliodas had to keep his hands to himself. I stripped, planning on a short dip, finding the appeal of soaking irresistible. With my dress and pants folded, I put the flower on top and glided over and then down into the water.

"Ahhh." I sighed in ease as I floated, weightless with the bubbles played at my wings, back, hair and thighs as I spun slowly in place from the movements of the water. Tears welled and fell into the water, glowing slightly but I let them trickle away. I'd been pushing down my sadness for Meliodas' sake, he had enough to deal with and I didn't want to add my problems to his when he shouldered so much right now.

If the roles were reversed I knew how I would feel in his place and... I wish they had been, that it had been me that gave everything up, to save him from this fate. This was the second mission where he was expected to kill his own. He had on the last one, I knew it as he refused to answer me when I had asked. I'd make sure I stood by his side in every fight from here on out. The water, already clear now shined with light sparkles, my glowing tears floating around me.

I closed my eyes, leaking sorrow at the cruelty of our fate. To have to fight so hard, give up so much, just to be together? I exhaled, shakily, wishing it could be easy. If I had been born anything other than a Goddess...

A stick snapped, so close and I flinched, sinking into the water. Two white faces were stark in the tree line and I screamed, cutting it short as I covered myself with my arms. The water was too clear and the light too bright for them not to see.

"Lady Elizabeth?" The one on the right asked, turning away and showing me his back but the other was open-mouthed, staring. Realization struck, they were the two hunters. They each had a pheasant in their hand. "Mael's gonna kill me." One hissed. Then I blinked and it was Meliodas' back blocking my view... or, rather their view. I heard his 'nish nish nish' chuckle and my face burned.

Why did I put myself in this position?

"I sympathize, it is so hard to look away... she's beyond lovely." Meliodas groaned low, seemingly unable to resist as he turned to look. "So bright in the dark." Meliodas' eyes roamed until they met mine and his smile faded. "But you've made her cry." He stated and then he's gone.

I looked toward the trees. I spotted a blur as one, then the other, are tossed overhand through the sky back towards our camp. Meliodas threw them away. I swiped at my tears, breathing out to release my extra emotions and I looked for him. With a little swim, I gripped the edge of the spring.

"Meliodas?" I whispered, suddenly feeling afraid of being alone in the dark now that I'd been snuck up on. He came through the trees where the other peepers had been, smiling as he took a seat before me, crossing his legs under himself.

"That's not the kind of trouble I expected to find you in." He joked, grinning back as he leaned forward to look down. "Your tears are little points of light..." Meliodas marveled, his face soft and in awe as he saw the depths of the spring, then follows up my body. His eyes explored me and I grew warmer still, smiling softly.

"Thank you," I whispered. He took off his shoes, rolled up his pants and dangled his feet in the water.

"I suppose I should expect the unexpected with you." Meliodas stated, "Our first mission together and I'm throwing around our allies." I sputtered an apology and he chuckled, shrugging. "I really don't blame them." He stared, not trying to be subtle and I splashed a little flick of water on him. Laughing as he gave me an exaggerated licking-his-lips look.

"We should get back," I said with a hint of a question, and Meliodas shrugged, laying down, hands behind his head as he looked to the sky.

"Stay as long as you like." He reassured, "If they come looking for us... we'll just be like this." The nerves eased as I really wouldn't stop him from touching me, and I tread water at the side. I rested my head on his knee to stop myself from floating away, anchoring me and being close to him in one motion. The sounds of nature filled the comfortable silence between us.

"I feel... like everything is going to be okay when I'm with you," I confessed to him, slipping my cheek across his knee to kiss him there, then settling back.

"Yeah..." he agreed, I could hear the smile in his voice.

When a few more peaceful moments passed I was ready to go and he pulled me out with minimal effort. He felt over my slick body with rough hands. I shivered, my wings quivering as I pulled away. We couldn't start that. He knew it too, prolonging it, but letting me go. He watched as I dressed, the flower tucked into my chest. "You're just as bad as the peepers!" I playfully said, looking at him staring.

"Worse." He promised and I shivered all the way down, feeling it in my core. I shook it off, grabbed my shoes and glided into the air. He walks back, nonchalant and I meandered, looking to the sky and my nerves built as I knew I'd have to face the others.

Grilled meat smells alerted me of our nearness and my belly rumbled. As soon as we came through the trees, me flying and Meliodas walking, the two others started apologizing.

"It's okay," I told them, face burning. "We surprised each other, I think." Yet none of us could meet the others eyes and Meliodas laughed, pulling me to sit by him at the fire. Lion gave us a skewer each with a piece of pheasant and I nibbled, suddenly not that hungry.

The others claimed they want to check out the spring too, that a bath would be nice before they were subjected to living among the humans. I frowned, watching them go. Lion stayed, watching after the men and when they were gone, he asked Meliodas if their side of the story was correct. It was pretty accurate, except they claimed Meliodas 'went demon on them' and I giggled. He was always a demon.

"I'm hers." Meliodas spoke, my heart soaring until he continued, explaining what he meant "as her knight, I had to do as she wished. She wanted a bath."

"You moved so quick when she screamed, like how you moved after our escape." Lion looked impressed, "Is that something you can teach?" Meliodas' hand reached over, touching my leg and I turned. His eyes were wide his face blanking. From the side, I couldn't tell what was wrong. Then the expression was gone and he chewed at his meat stick with nonchalance.

"When we're back at headquarters, I can show you some things." Lion seemed satisfied, spots Meliodas' hand on my leg and excused himself to 'check on the others' going toward the spring.

I abandoned my skewer, offering the rest to Meliodas and he took it, biting into it with a grin. "Where are we sleeping?" I asked and he pointed near the fire. I unrolled our bedrolls next to one another and when he's finished he tosses the stick aside, laying claim to the one on the outside by spreading out on it. Tentatively, I sat beside him on my own mat, I began working my fingers through my hair to ease out the tangles.

"Reminds me of our night under the stars," I whispered, smiling.

"Let me." He requested, sitting up and helping me untangle my locks. He ran his fingers through the long silver tresses and it felt intimate compared to my own harsher tugs. I liked when his calves moved to rest on either side of my hips, softly connecting us. Gently, he moved through my hair, going from scalp to tips long after the knots were handled.

"Meliodas?" I asked, and he 'hmm'd' an invitation to continue. "Now that we know what this flower is..." My hand comes up to touch it, moving the scarf to feel the silky petals "well... I know it's not what your people do, so I understand if you don't want to consume it. But, can we still... will you..." I flushed, covering my lips with my fingers to stop my fumbling. I'd already asked once, maybe I shouldn't offer it again. Not like this.

"Eager?" Warmth dripped in his voice.

"How can you not be?" I replied shyly, "I feel like we're running out of time." My voice dropped to a whisper, tears welling and his soft fingers stilled. He leaned forward, wrapping me in his arms and I relaxed back into him, curling my legs over his thigh as I turned into his torso. "Our parents are... you know... Neither will allow this. My mother was, is, furious."

"It doesn't matter what they allow," Meliodas determined, kissing my head. "We can stay here, make peace in Britannia and live among the humans if we have too." He sounded so sure as if he had this planned out for a while and it centered on us being together. My heart soared. "I'll always fight for us, as long as I breathe I'll protect what is most important to me." I sat up with a turn, my hands on his biceps to look at him.

"I feel the same way," I had the same firmness in my own voice. "No matter what happens, no matter who turns on you or who your enemies are, I will always be by your side."

I twisted, sitting between his legs to face him fully, my legs stretched to either side of his hips so we mirrored, a gap between us. His eyes were wide, full of swirling tenderness. "We're not running out of time," Meliodas assured, taking my hands between his and suddenly looking so vulnerable and young. "There's this thing... that demons do... It's an old way of doing things..." I'd said those words to him when I'd offered him my Bloom of Innocence. He took a deep breath, meeting my eyes with such warmth my heart squeezed.

"Elizabeth, would you bind yourself to me?" I flushed, his eyes were full of hope but his mouth was set in a nervous purse. Meliodas tone implied this was something important to him.

"Okay," I told him softly in response to his open show of feelings, smiling and pleased. His grin grew to a beam and his teeth shone as he dropped my hands, wrapped his arms around me and squished me to his chest in joy. I muttered against his shoulder "What does binding mean though?" I hushed and he froze, stunned laughter ringing loud in the silence around us. I had a guess but I wanted to know for sure to avoid embarrassment later.

"Oh, Elizabeth." He was still chuckling, pulling back to kiss my face, me leaning in from his embrace. Just as I'd done to him so many times before, he rained his affection on me and I soaked it in, feeling it like he did. Warmth bloomed in my chest, his kind assault to my skin with his tender lips, it was... nice. He explained between his kisses. "It's like your flower. We can do both. Binding is a way to be tied together, coupled, married. Whatever word you want, as long as the sentiment is the same."

I flushed, his kisses stopped as I smiled, my hands feeling their way to his neck. "Yes, please." I hushed, trying to feel it all, and I opened my eyes to see his, as his forehead touched mine. Could he see how I felt, I could see it in him... The warm, all-in, acceptance. We'd fight for us. I released him, sitting back and moving my scarf to removed my flower, ready. Meliodas put his hand on mine to still me.

"Later." He implored, and he looked toward the direction of the spring. Right. I repositioned the flower, fixing the scarf over it again, a little embarrassed. "We should get to sleep, we have to head out tomorrow and there is a slight chance we're going into a fight." His smile was stunning and my heart skipped a beat as we laid down, facing the other.

"What do we do to be... bound?" I inquired quietly, unsure if that was the right term. We were linked, as even on separate mats, him on his and me on mine, our hands weaved together between us and heads touch together.

"We say the vow, and tie our hands together. It's supposed to be witnessed." He squeezed my hand. "We hold hands like this, and with a cord or string, we wrap around the others wrist and hand to keep us together. Once, tied, we're supposed to consummate our union."

"All those jokes about what holding hands mean to a goddess and your people hold hands to bind together and couple." I mocked and he chuckled, eyes closing, his face crinkling in joy and I watched him. He was in a wonderful mood as if the weight he'd been carrying was lifted for the time being and I felt gooey inside because of it, knowing it was because he was excited to join.

"Fair." He hushed, eyes dancing when he met mine. We stared for a long while before his deviousness crept into his eyes. "Do you know the other terms for coupling, Elizabeth?" He puzzled and I flushed, already knowing what's about to come out of his mouth. A string of indecent words.

"Meliodas!" I warned, my face burned already and I tensed.

"Making love." He whispered and all the tension eased from my body.

"Truly?" I asked, gripping his hands tighter and looking into him. He smiled, soft and emotional. I felt like I was floating in that spring again, swirling in place with him, my anchor to the world.

"Truly." He confirmed and tears eased out, he released one of my hands to reach up and held the back of my head as my overfull emotions leaked from the corner of my eyes. I nodded, joyous, and I gripped my free fist onto his loose button up shirt at his middle as if, with my fingers, I could keep him here with me forever.

"Let's do that, then," I agreed. He nodded against my forehead, hushing me sweetly. He tucked the blanket up around me before returning his hand to the back of my head protectively. The other soldiers returned, seemingly trying to be quiet but Meliodas and I were still looking into one another, our fingers moving ever so slightly against the others.

If we'd been alone... I grew warm at my core and Meliodas' grin became crooked. How could he tell? I bit my lip. "Sleep." He whispered, thickly.

"But then... it will be a new day, and I like this one," I confessed to him quietly so it would not alert or disturb the others and he melted all the more. His eyes shone and his face relaxed.

"I feel the same way." He admitted, hand firm in mine. Arching forward, he kissed me so softly and our breathing mingled. My eyes closed, smelling him and I found myself drifting off, holding on to him while gliding into unconsciousness.

We woke early, hands still weaved and heads still together. Lion had gotten up first as he's the one calling out for us all to get moving. Before Meliodas moved, I stole a kiss, soft and quick then rolled away while detangling from him. I knew what needed to be packed up and I did my part, taking my own bags, putting dirt over the coals of the fire. I double checked we had everything before we headed out.

Our pace wasn't as punishing today and I fell back from the others, thinking about what Meliodas had said days ago. I'd been so nervous in that peace meeting and it hadn't helped that I had been distracted by Meliodas' hands roaming my body. Meliodas said... Grayroad made humans into lesser demons. Meliodas fell back to fly beside me when I didn't catch up. His dark wings didn't flap, but they glided him around like faerie wings. It used his magic, but he didn't seem to be anywhere near the end of his stores.

"What's bothering you?" He asked, over the wind, but not loud. "You've been off since we left."

"I've been thinking about what you said," I explained, adjusting my bag to have something to do with my hands and have a reason not to look at him. When I did look, I was surprised. His face was intentionally blank. "About Grayroads making red and gray demons from humans..." His expression opened as if he released a big held breath and I frowned, confused, before continuing. "Albions are just golems... so I thought the others... like the Ochre demon and such, were too."

"Albions are golems. Red, gray and the others like them are born from Grayroads or another like her. The rest are lesser demons." He explained, and my heart dropped. I couldn't look at him, shamed as I pinched my eyes closed to try and hold in my tears. They squeezed out in spite of my efforts and I scowled as I swiped them away with my forearm. Meliodas killed Zeno and Anarak for me, because of me. I wouldn't add this worry to him, Would he think I was silly for being upset over killing one Ochre demon, a human that had been morphed into something monstrous? Sure, it had been to buy the others time to escape but it didn't make it better. "Can they be saved?" I wondered aloud.

"I've never seen it done... Most of the red and gray demons I've interacted with have surrendered to the demon's call." I accepted his answer, moving to brush my wing across his and it quivered from the sensation.

Even if it took me a few tries, I would attempt to save them. "If we come across any, I'll try, I don't want them to die either," I determined and his responding warm smile was the pinnacle of my life, worth everything just to see it.

"You'll have to teach me how to appeal to hearts." Meliodas was hiding his face as he looked to the distance. "We're coming into a battle." He warned, fierce as he turned to me, "Be ready." He shot forward, speaking to the others and they rallied.

"We'll take their heads!" The brown haired peeper called out and I flushed, flying forward so I could look down and back at all of them, Meliodas included.

"You will listen!" I called out, determined and firm. "We are here to save lives. Save them! If a demon retreats you let them! I guarantee your lives, but if anyone responds to my reach into their hearts, then I guarantee their lives as well."

"You can reach hearts, Lion asks, "like The Deity?"

"How can you guarantee our lives?" And another answered for him "She can heal, flawlessly, she regrew a hand once, the full thing, swear it." I flush, looking to Meliodas and I stuttered in my flight at his expression. What did that face mean? Why did it make me feel... brave? With a shake, I turned to our people, hoping I could trust them to listen.

We were miles away when I spotted the smoke. I stretched my magic, reaching forward and I visualized my message. That we didn't want to fight, we wanted peace. To please leave the humans and their territories. I pushed, waited and tried again. Nothing, no response. Perhaps the distance interfered? Meliodas took to my side, brushing our wings as I had done earlier.

"If they were human, there is nothing left of them to save..." He explained, as if not wanting to break the news to me.

"There is always something left to save," I reaffirmed pleadingly, turning back to my task to try all the harder. We approached and the screams could be heard. This wasn't a battle, it was a massacre. The town was partially destroyed from the rubble, smashed buildings and splintered debris over the packed earth here. Judging from how far the destruction went, the attack just started.

Three red demons and a few handfuls of imp-like lesser ones were the attackers I saw. I sped up, Meliodas close to my side as we entered the city. These humans weren't warriors, yet some stood before the beasts with weapons. Bodies below were alive but... empty and the answer to my unasked question floated toward the nearest red demon, a wisp of a soul.

The little thing fluttered, a glowing orb with blue wisps licking out as if propelling it forward. It reminded me of a will-o-wisp, the night lights of the fairy forest that rarely sparked.

I called to the overly large red demons heart, to release the soul and when no answer came I barely activated my powers. Another pair of wings erupted at my back, ethereal. I intercepted the soul, lifting it up, turning to the red demon and searching for a way to save the human within. It roared, its hellfire erupting from its mouth and Meliodas grabbed my arm, spinning us out of its path. I used his interference to lead the fire up, away from the people by counteracting it with my own light. In this bease, there was nothing to save. "It's empty," I whispered and Meliodas blinked away, slicing through the demon as if it were butter.

He's graceful, a man with a mark, the killing blow over so quick there was a kind of beauty to it.

I knew when another had spotted me and I dangled myself as bait, wanting the next red demon to focus on us, to turn away from the townspeople. Meliodas yelled at me to move as two beams shot from the eyes of the beast but with little effort, I used my light to filter its dark magic out. A shield that filtered the attack into a gentle breeze. I called to the person inside... again there is nothing.

Maybe the Red demons were born from human corpses? I'd have to get more details. I appealed to its heart, knowing it was useless but trying anyway. If it had a soul, any feelings at all, then I could attempt to reverse it. Meliodas sliced it down and I paused for his second-long kill to wait for him before I went after the third. I hadn't before and it seemed to worry him. With the break, I searched for our allies. The other angels were taking out the imps, corralling the humans away from the thick of it.

I reinvigorated the other fighters as I flew over and in a jolt, I came face to face with the big, floppy red demon, his bulging mass reaching forward to grab me. In an instant the arm was sliced off, Meliodas' Giant broadsword flashing before me. It screamed internally and I floundered, not sure how to help. Something was inside of this massive red demon, affected. It wasn't like a poison I could remove, not something simple. This person was... distressed, mindless in their madness and I crossed my forearms before me, preparing my magic to eradicate the darkness, flying in front of Meliodas in case he had a reaction to what I was about to try.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to the beast and took a breath to yell "Let there be Light!" My ethereal wings spread as blinding light erupted forward. Too powerful, too much and the red demon sizzled smaller, the blobby dark bits leaking from its body like bubbling steam. My attack reminded me of Meliodas frying Zeno like bacon. The Demon before me shrunk and shrunk until a small, pale body was left. The little person was lying in an oval of meadow flowers, a byproduct of my magic. I dropped to it, feeling Meliodas follow as I checked over the body... but they were dead. Long dead. Something inside of me withered.

She's wounded, lifeless and I wondered if there had been peace for her in the end. The screams died down, the clashing ceased and I knew what it meant when Meliodas adjusted his blade hilt to prop against his shoulder, his giant sword spanned long into the air above us. The fighting was over. A blimp of a battle.

"Don't cry," Meliodas tried to comfort me while helping me up. I hadn't realized I'd started and I wondered when I had through the course of my first personal taste of fighting while our clans clashed. I wiped them away.

"I... can't seem to do anything right," I whispered.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas took my hand in an attempt to reassure and I smiled at him, breathing a deep breath and nodding. "You were wonderful. Your power is... beyond my own, I could sense so much when you took her darkness away." I didn't answer, knowing if I would have saved just one of them, I might have believed him. I heard a piece of her, the woman that had been trapped inside the beast. I'd have to talk it through with him later. After we sorted this town out.

Maybe I had removed the darkness too quickly?

Lion and the others thanked me, asking me how I could keep their wounds to a minimum and I tried to explain the aura of ill intent that I could pick out. In the end, I just told him it wasn't a problem and I started on healing the villagers. Some stronger souls found their way back to their bodies but others were shells, their spark of life having been devoured. Meliodas informed Lion this attack was most likely a distraction, simply a diversion so we wouldn't notice something else. "Sending such paltry demons to collect souls... they can't be this desperate. That's all I know from this, I'm going to stay with Elizabeth, tell the others what you want."

And he did stay with me, moving the injured to and from. When the more pressing needs were met we set up a church to bring in more wounded as they came. Meliodas abandoned his weapon outside of it, wedged into the ground. He was good with kids, sympathetic to those devastated by the loss but always boomeranged back to my side. By nightfall, we were done, the other Goddesses having already told us we'd been given rooms at a tavern that only had a wall or two destroyed. That's where they would be staying, but the only nun left in this church told us there was a bell tower room available. After a short discussion, we headed there, in case I was needed in the night.

"You know... I wasn't in any danger in that fight." I tiredly told Meliodas as we climbed the rickety wooden stairs spiraling up.

"Yeah." He conceded, smiling at me a step behind. "It was strange for me to not kill everything that threatened you. To fight without relying on my demon side."

"I don't want you to have to fight... but Meliodas, I want you to live. If you have to kill I will share that burden with you." He stopped, looking up at me with such starkness I blinked in alarm, trying to understand what he was feeling but I'm not quick enough as he smiled, melting into the liquid emerald tenderness I loved to see in him. We continued until we reached the landing before the doorless room, a cobweb in the corner of the archway.

"I want to save them and with you at my side, at your power level, I think we can." He took a breath as we enter the little dusty room. A single twin bed was positioned in the middle. I suppose you have to put it in the center as all the walls were curved, "But... Elizabeth, most demons aren't like me. They don't want peace, they want to overpower, to annihilate. It would take just shy of a miracle to save them. Demons fight, for one thing, something in their hearts and if they don't have that, there is nothing to appeal to. But those with revenge, or protection, or with a solid goal... Demons can be-"

"Just like Goddesses." I finished for him, "Everyone fights for something. I never had something to fight for, so I always handled the aftermath, healing those left behind..." I sat on the bed truly edging into exhaustion, Meliodas stood before me and I peeked up at him. "I have something to fight for now, I understand their desperation." I reached forward, my palm touched the side of his torso and a heart thumped under my fingers.

"Me too." He whispered, bending down to kiss me.


	38. A Ribbon

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
BellaCreatura beta'd this chapter and a special shout out to Sinfulfics for being very kind. Thank you both!

Chapter Thirty-Eight: A Ribbon

Two days later, having slept at the church, we set off on our own. The goddesses stayed behind as outside refugees had come from two other neighboring towns and this one became a safe haven for them. The goddess fighters remained to fortify the city and to defend it now that it had grown. Meliodas suggested an evacuation plan. It was what we'd been sent to do and had been too late for, and Lion agreed.

He thanked Meliodas, telling us to have a good trip back to base, and wished us good luck with the Mael situation.

I flushed, realizing I was intended for two people at the moment. I told Mael right away no, but word had spread so fast and I didn't know how. Mael wouldn't do this, he'd been against the union too. We said our goodbyes and headed back the way we came with the few things we had brought to begin with. Meliodas had his sword, bedrolls, and bag while I only had my pack. Still, we took to the sky for a while, not rushing.

"Do you think we are doing the right thing?" I asked and Meliodas didn't answer for a long while.

"There is no right and wrong in war, Elizabeth." He proclaimed slowly, resigned to be the bearer of bad news.

I thought about it, "Yeah..." I confessed, thinking at the end of the day, people didn't think about that, they just wanted to be alive. Revenge and murder, a cycle that didn't stop when our people were this far in. Neither were right, neither were wrong, and in the heat of battle where it's your life or theirs, killing didn't feel the same as killing in another situation. We flew for a few more hours, the sun on its way down.

Our clans wouldn't stop, would they?

We were running out of time. Unless we did something drastic. Perhaps we could appeal to our parents? They had to care about us to some degree.

I ran the idea by Meliodas. "If anyone could appeal to them, it would be you." He relented, "It might be our clans' best bet..."

"If we are bound by then," I smiled over at him, "we could lead our people into a union with ours." He grinned back but his eyes were open wide and I couldn't find any hope there.

Our next two weeks repeated. We would return to The Light of Grace, we would speak with Gloxinia and Drole if either were there when we were. Sometimes spending time as friends, other times we would be sent off to accomplish another military goal. Usually, it seemed to be easier things, like another town to defend.

Meliodas tried to tell Ludociel the demons were amassing power. The theory that it was an attempt for them to restore the balance now that he shifted sides, was solid. I feared he shouldered so much of the blame but it was me too. "I am here to share this suffering with you." It had been pillow talk, as Meliodas had termed, and he told me he would, as long as I promised the same. "I don't regret choosing you Elizabeth, I never will."

I theorized Ludociel kept us away for a reason. "Not just to keep me as the face of these fights, taking out the demons and protecting our allies is the most I want us to be doing, but he must be planning something..." Meliodas figured it was punishment for me taking him on as a knight but I kept thinking about that statue Mael had commissioned from Dabuzu.

Ludociel seemed all the more upset after he was forced to make Meliodas my knight. He resented witnessing his pledge to me as Meliodas had recited his knight's creed with his own twist. I could still hear his words, remember how open his eyes looked and how steady his voice was as he made his promises...

"I vow to service you, Lady Elizabeth, your body is in my hands," he had paused for sexual effect and I had burned red, "to protect, even at the cost of my own life. I give my sword to sheath wherever you want it. To honor your desires without complaint, no matter how insistent your need, nor how often you require my body." I had covered my mouth in shock, but in the end, he took it seriously. "I vow to always fight at your side, no matter the cost, no matter the odds."

Ludociel had all but stormed out of the ceremony room. Mael though, after, as he had been at The Light of Grace at the time, said he was grateful I finally took a knight with enough strength to actually protect me. He'd been somber, pained, but he let me go. He asked for a few words with Meliodas and the two had, 'gone for a walk'. When Meliodas had returned, he looked relieved and... sappy, but told me, "It's between us men."

Through our time, we hadn't gone any further than using our mouths and my flower was steadily changing. The bloom now had pricks of pink in its purple-black core. I carried it with me, always. Even in our skirmishes. Grayroads demon children have yet to be reverted back to human or saved. The change from her seeds was too full a transformation. It seemed as if the human's death was inevitable but I couldn't help but try. A few demons had been spared, their will to fight no match for my empathetic plea and Meliodas was always a little extra affectionate those days but he told me they would fight again as their clan would send them back out. But I had told him, "Another day is sometimes all anyone has."

Meliodas brought his blade down to any enemy in our path.

Most days, he seemed nonchalant about it, but I could tell sometimes after it had settled, that he was bothered. On those nights, we practiced speaking to a person's heart, a skill he was picking up fast. He said it would do wonders when a demon failed to contain their darker half. We were on our way back from a stint at the border, defending a line on a map, of all things, but no one had come. Either our information was bad or Ludociel had sent us on a goose chase. We sent our 'volunteers' home, doing one last walk along the border before going back ourselves. I was grateful we got to be together but our time alone consisted of our nights at The Light of Grace and when we could send our troops without us for a day or so.

We were flying together, in the clouds as best we could as it was overcast and I dipped around, enjoying the flight. "I don't know how people live without this, without wings." I elaborated for him, "Flying is one of my greatest joys. Second only to being with you." I smirked, looking over to catch his soft smile. His hair was wet, clinging to his skull from the moisture so high in the atmosphere. My clothes stuck to my flesh but I didn't mind because of how he looked at me. If he kept it up, we'd be setting up camp much sooner so I could touch him again.

With others around so often, when we were alone it was a frenzy of sensations, a true pawing at one another. The urge to touch him, to be skin to skin was a constant gnawing, like a hunger that couldn't be satisfied. I wanted to couple with him, to make love to him, but he knew this and we haven't yet. He hadn't asked about the binding again and I hadn't about the flower. Were we both waiting for the other to make the first move?

Feeling playful, I twirled around Meliodas, and in front of him, I dived. He groaned, grabbing at me through the clouds. Fear shivered through me as I realized where we were. With his next grab, I eased to him, wanting to be closer, remembering being captured here and my wings being torn from my flesh. I knew the attackers were gone, dead, that with Meliodas nothing would touch me but my feelings didn't listen to logic. I rested my hand on his forearm, his broadsword between us, gripped in his hand.

"What is it?" Meliodas asked, alert, and I shook myself. The joints where my wings were ached as if they remembered too.

"Nothing," I quipped to him, easing as I took comfort from his nearness. I didn't want to remind him. "We're going to stay at Heaven's theater?" I asked, my voice a whisper, unconsciously responding to my surroundings.

"Yeah, it's where it all started." He trailed off, looking nervous and I watched, expecting him to continue. When he didn't, I grew nervous myself, his feelings catching into me.

"I longed for you back then. Minutes apart felt like days." I admitted and I watched his head tilt up and down in silent agreement.

"No matter what I was doing, you were always on my mind. Wondering what face you were making, what you were doing or how you would react to something happening around me." Meliodas' darkness reached out to touch my wing, shifting closer at his confession.

"I long for you still," I told him with a little smirk, staring at the side of his face until he met my eyes and they melted in a delicious way. He twisted, bringing our hands up and through his wet pants I could see the outline of his hardness. Meliodas knew what I was looking at and he chuckled before explaining.

"You're soaked through, my body is fine-tuned to yours and your fate was sealed when you dived." He groaned. "There is something we are overdue for and I don't want to wait any longer." His expression softened, shifting back to fly straight, "No more longing."

My tummy turned, my heart pounded and I had to look away, flushed with anticipation and anxiety. Through the clouds, I could see the first tower of the old theater, the large goddess statue sitting on top of it. With the way the mist moved around it, the round topless rotunda stage looked inviting in its privacy.

We arrived, wet with dew and he dropped our bedrolls, his bag and his sword in one heave. I tossed my bag to join the pile, looking around. The sack Merlin had packed for me was still here, soaked from the wet clouds and squished flatter. The gold demon coins in the shape of a heart on the first row were still present too.

"Huh, that's new." He pointed to the crater my body made among the seats. I flushed hot as he went over to the coins and then the bag. I watched as his fingers brushed over the coins and slowly he turned to smile at me over his shoulder. "Do you know what Estarossa means, Elizabeth? It's of an ancient language."

The subject change had me reeling to catch up. "No," I whispered, saddened as my pups fuzzy rimmed eyes flashed in my mind.

"It means love." He spoke concisely, slowly. He'd named our lost dog love? When the treaty was still being done... Did that mean all this time he'd- "This symbol you've made here, the heart, it means love." Slowly, I eased into my feelings, something clicking into place, the last gear in my body slid in with the rest of me seamlessly.

"All this love," I whispered, the breeze cold against my wet clothes but I felt so warm. From my toes to my hairline something spread in me that both left me feeling vulnerable and soothed. I was full, my eyes filled with unshed tears as I watched him, my emotions too much to hold in. My heart raced, leaping for him, us. "Meliodas, I..." I squeaked, mouth opening and the tears fell, taking a step to him as even the few feet keeping us apart were too much.

"Bind with me, Elizabeth." Meliodas closed the distance, hand out, drawn to me as I was him. "Is this something you want with me? I know goddesses come and go in a coupling but this one... I won't let you go, it will be forever."

I took his hand, our fingers entwining as the tips of our fingers rest on the other's knuckles. Our thumbs rubbed ever so slowly before clasping. His eyes swirled with vulnerability, open like bay windows in the summer. I sank into them, awash in his adoration shining there. How lucky, that the person I love, the one I couldn't -no wouldn't- live without, loved me too.

"Yes." With tears falling, I sighed, content. I was happy. With the world ablaze in war, I found my heart soaring, seemingly above it all. "I've been yours. I'll always be yours and I want you to be mine."

"Okay." He whispered, staring into me before he pulled me along, to our pile of things. "Part of the ritual is to be undressed by the other. It's also supposed to be witnessed but I doubt you'd want to be exposed or watched for this even outside of our special circumstances." He shrugged, grinning with all his teeth shining as he fumbled with the turquoise ribbon from the hilt of his weapon, grimy from battle and wet from the mist. "Being naked symbolizes our openness with one another, going forward."

I nodded, releasing his hand so he could pull at the ribbon using both, it had knotted with the other blue one and he turned his focus to his task. I kneeled behind him, resting my chin to his shoulder and tucking my arms under his to feel his wet chest humming. After feeling it so often it was a comfort. "Can I help with this?" I whispered, holding him tighter and he shook his head no, pulling the ribbon free and it spun in the wind, dangling. He grabbed a bedroll, and touched my arm at his chest, leaning his head back to feel my cheek with his and I shivered from the tender contact.

We stood and he pulled me along to the center of the stage. He released me to lay out the mat. In the center, he spun the ribbon into a spiral, he turned to me, looking me over. "You've brought color to my world, Elizabeth. All the dark corners of me are bright with you." I flushed, stepping to him. We were positioned face to face, toe tips touching beside the mat.

"I'll undress you, then you'll undress me... after we'll kneel on the mat to tie our hands together. I'll say the vow. If you want you can vow it to me but only if you are certain."

"And, you'll eat my flower?" I asked, fumbling to push my scarf aside, plucking it from my cleavage.

"Yeah..." His voice was thick, hoarse. "If you're sure." I smiled, bending to place the bloom in the center of the spiral he made with the ribbon.

"We're... to make love while tied?" I asked to be clear and he smiled, shy, nodding as his face pinkened. "My heart's racing," I took his hand, pulling it to my chest, "Feel." His other hand joined the one I pressed to my chest, to tug at the knot of my scarf. He'd undressed me before, eager and frantic, sexually, but this time... it was slow, tender.

My dress peeled from my body, sticking from the dew dampening the fabric. He took his time, his skin to mine with soft caresses and his expression stayed steady as he marveled. "I didn't know emotions could go this deep, that I could feel so much." He told me. "It's like.. I had only lived life through a dream, everything filtered through the haze and then I met you and I awoke." Tears fell and his hands left my hips to swipe his thumbs over my cheeks. He brought the drops to his lips and his pink tongue lapped up the wetness.

He resumed undressing me. He was careful of my wings as I tucked them, and he brushed over the feathers there as if memorizing each little plume. This reminded me of when he'd started undressing me in his rooms except instead of lust he's spreading with his touch, it's love. A transfer from his skin to mine. I was growing aroused but it was a simmer in the background as his emotions were front and center.

Did his feelings really run as deep as mine? Could they?

When he tossed my wet dress over his shoulder and it slapped on the stone tile I giggled, looking down as he felt along the elastic of my pants, the band of my underwear showing on my right hip by a few centimeters. I wished I had known this was going to happen as I would have worn cuter panties. "My greatest wish in life is to live and die at your side." He confessed to me and I reached for him, my hands in his hair as he tugged at my waistband, leaning towards my core.

"My greatest fear is to live in a world without you," I professed to him in a whispered confession. "I won't." I gripped at his locks as he looked up, eyes stark with fresh emotions. My tears dripped and with him kneeling below me they smack on his cheek. He doesn't react. "I refuse, our souls are supposed to be together," I whispered. Slowly, his face made contact with my tummy as his fingers felt down my legs. I held him there, stepping my feet one at a time out of my panties.

I was naked before him.

I loosened my grip when he sat back on his heels, eyes a glowing fire. I offered my hand and he took it. When he's standing I pushed his hair back, leaning to put my lips to his forehead, "I bless you, Meliodas." I whispered, healing him just to feel my magic course through him, to warm him from the chill. "With everything I am, I give it to you." I sealed it with another kiss there, feeling from his scalp down to his collar, pulling away to undress him.

His eyes were closed, face to the sky and I want him to look like this always. Serene. I found the first button on his shirt. I couldn't help but place another kiss on his parted lips, so soft it was the barest of touches. He smiled, opening his eyes half-lidded, liquid love shining in him and I wanted him to feel it, to know it from me.

I handled him with care, leaving barely-there kisses as I bent, tugged and undid his clothing. He stepped out of his shoes and pants. Even on his feet, I kissed, feeling his hard calf muscles under my fingers. "Do you feel it?" I asked, looking over his naked body, sitting back on my heels. He was semi-hardened as he contently sighed.

"Yeah..." he exhaled as he spoke, "I do." He smiled down to me, offering his hand to help me stand. With steadiness, he guided me to step onto the mat, me on one side of the flower and ribbon, him on the other. When he started to kneel, I followed, careful not to disturb the arrangement but reluctant to separate from him. My wings quivered and I flushed, embarrassed at their reaction, my nerves flaring too intensely.

With an apologetic smile, I sat on my heels to match him. We meet gazes as we stared, naked and not touching. Looking into him had always been intimate but with the raw feelings coursing through us it felt like more, like a connection being formed. Was this part of the binding? I didn't want to disturb us, tears leaked so slowly, escaping to relieve the saturation of feelings building inside of me. I swiped them away, breathing out a long sigh from my tightening throat.

His left hand came up, over the space between us, palm up. I placed mine in his to clasp and he lifted the blue ribbon. With gentle movements he wrapped it around my wrist, over the back of my hand and took a shaky breath, letting it dangle off my knuckles. The ribbon hadn't touched his wrist. I was to do that part.

"I vow..." He started, holding his gaze steady and his voice hoarse with emotion. "As I take your hand, you shall not walk alone, my heart is your shelter and my arms your home." His nose flared, his eyes darkening. Tendrils moved from his fingers under the ribbon and over my skin, velvet and smooth across my arm.

He looked so expectant, hopeful and I stared, absorbing the impact his words have. With my free hand shaking, I took the ribbon, looping it over his hand and around his wrist. I tucked it into itself so it stayed in place as he had done. His darkness branched out, touching across my breasts, over my neck, down my back, and in a rush, his magic was exploring all over me. The demon mark curled above his eye, but both stayed a liquid green.

"I vow, as I take your hand, you shall never walk alone, my heart is your shelter and my arms your home," I promised, steady with my conviction. He didn't breathe, lips parted and I hoped he was seeing that same something in me. I reached down, cupping my flower and in my free palm, I held it between us. "Meliodas, I offer you the manifestation of my innocence, to take it into your body, as I take you into mine." I flushed, nervous with my offering and about what's to come.

His hand shook as he took it from me. I was expecting an instant orgasm like the last time, but as his skin brushed the petals, cupping it from me, I felt so full I knew I would burst, but not with pleasure. I gasped, gripping his hand tied to mine and I fought to keep eye contact. My chest tightened as if from the inside something soft was clawing to get out and my throat couldn't accommodate the size of it. So warm, too good, and it hurt in the best way.

In a single sweep, he tucked the bloom in his mouth, pressing the core with his finger to fit it inside his maw. The feelings flow through me, a conduit directing his feelings into me. My heart raced, my lungs seized up and I was so overcome with affection I didn't know how I endured it. My toes spread as if to make more room, yet that space I made filled too. Tears leaked faster, not to escape but to relieve the pressure. "Oh," I whispered, knowing I had more to say for this part and having a hard time enduring the sensations. "May... my love shield you... protect you... sustain you..." I fought to look into him, feeling my love bleed out as he swallowed without chewing. "An everlasting link..."

My body bowed, the rush of raw feelings ebbed, a wave retreating back into its depths and Meliodas copied me, pressing his forehead to mine and helping me stay upright with him as my support. We breathed one another's air, me panting and his steady. When my lungs filled and my tears stilled, Meliodas spoke softly, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I whispered, "you?"

"I have never been better than this moment." Through my lashes I looked to him, he's already looking at me under his brows. "We are two parts of one... and Elizabeth, you are the best part of me." A gasping, relieved 'huh' escaped me, and I smiled, breathing him in to commit his smell to memory, closing my eyes to feel it. The safe, warm, kind nostalgia. I soaked in the words he spoke to me, truly feeling as if his arms were my home and wanting him to take shelter in my heart.

"I want to remember this." I whispered, "this is the moment I want to relive on my last breath." His free hand cupped the back of my head, fingers in my hair. It seemed like he was trying to steady his own breathing. His tendrils spasm in chaos over so many parts of me, touching my core and I gasped, another two cross my chest to smooth over my hard nipples. With his tendrils, so much like velvet licks, my desires were turning into need.

"Your flower tasted like you, the aftertaste of your kisses, the silk of your skin and your sweet cream in one." I warmed, pleased. "Elizabeth, I'll do right by you." He promised, dipping forward to kiss me. Heavy, fast and desperate he claimed my mouth. I was slow to respond, feeling it before giving him my all too, my free hand to his chest as I slid my knees forward until they met his.

His fingers trailed down my neck, between the swells of my breasts and under my ribs to hold me there. His tendrils felt like soft touches and I confused the two for a moment, his touch all over me until he gripped. He was warm, I arched into him as best I could without breaking our kiss. Our tied hands relaxed at our side, my knuckles pointed down as our torsos connected with a rush of adrenaline.

I gasped, parting from his mouth slightly. "Elizabeth." He hushed, his hand roamed down my back to rest at the swell of my behind. His tendrils played at my core and I shivered. "For your first time... it might hurt, I want you to take the lead, you will know what feels good to you." He opened his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I don't want to hurt you and I'm afraid if I do the moving, I might."

"Okay", I relented softly, "I just, uh, I don't know what to do." Nerves bubbled in my belly.

"There isn't a way to mess up, not with me." His hand down my backside tugged at my thigh and with a firmer grip, he picked me up. Leaning me back and on our descent, his hardness ran along my wet slit with a wonderful shock of tingles up my spine. "Oh..." I gasped out and he shuddered, panting as he leaned over me. The hand-tied to mine gripped me tighter.

"I... need to get you to the edge... then we'll trade places... Go at your pace." He spoke but it wasn't directed at me, it was a mantra he was saying to himself with his eyes pinched closed in concentration. His tendrils flicked at my core and I gasped, arching up and meeting his hardness with a tentative touch. He stilled and I relaxed back, my free hand reaching up to touch his face.

"To the edge." He whispered, opening his dark green eyes to smile deviously and he moved down my body, his free hand exploring my breasts, his tongue licking at a peak. I felt at his hair, gripping as his fingers weaved into mine.

"I want to touch you," I confessed to him, wanting his hardness closer. Already yearning for him to be against my mouth or at my core again.

"Mmmm... we have the rest of our lives to do anything you can imagine..." He answered, but he shifted, his hardness to graze against my thigh as he moved lower. The tendrils around me parted to make way for him and he nipped at my hip with his teeth. "My demon... wants a part of you..." He admitted, chest rumbling.

"All the parts of you can have all the parts of me." My voice was wispy as his face hovered at my core, our tied hands stretched, my free palm falling to my tummy and I spread myself to him as an offering. His tendrils surged, either from my words or my actions, maybe both, but they were everywhere lapping at my flesh, as he started lapping at my clit.

He moved with them, playing with my body and knowing it so well. His hot breath, his firm tongue strokes all drove me wild. In a matter of minutes I was panting his name, writhing under him and just as the white-hot orgasm was within reach he stopped. He sat up, looking over me, eyes melted green as he laid on top of me. The feel of his weight on me spurred me closer, gasping as I rubbed against him.

Carefully, he wedged against me, my pulsing core aching for him as he wrapped his arm under my waist and I did the same around his neck to hold him close. In a twist, I was over him, his back on the mat. My knees tapped on either side of his hips and I flushed, tucking my head into the side of his face, feeling him hard against me.

My hands, one with his tied under it, moved to either side of his head to push myself up and I stared down, my silver strands fanned around us. "Every time I see you, my heart fills with this warm longing... It goes without saying but, I love you Meliodas." His demon mark faded, his eyes cleared and the tendrils shrank back into him and he smiled, one that reminded me of his sleepy smile in the mornings.

"Say it again." He demanded, gentle and eager.

"I love you," I told him, laughing as I bent forward to place a soft kiss to his tilted lips. "You are everything to me." When I leaned back, I looked down at our touching naughty bits, adjusting my knees to separate him from my wet core. He slid, springing up with my movement and I tentatively peered up, suddenly intimidated. "Meliodas..." I groused, weary all of sudden.

"Hm?" He sounded so content, his free hand came up to grip my wrist by his head.

"Are you sure you'll fit?" I worried shakily, flushing from my silliness and unsurity. He'd had two fingers in before but those weren't as hard or unyielding as his firm shaft, not to mention the size difference between the two. He hissed a breath and I gazed at him.

"Yeah," He hushed, his lips didn't touch, staying parted from his answer. I trusted him. Nodding as I pushed myself up, balancing with our tied hands as I raised my hips up, the tip of him touching me at my entrance. I'd need to wiggle or adjust him if I wanted to join us. My core clutched at nothing and I took a steadying breath, my desire and nerves warring with one another. I was certain of Meliodas. I would want him for the rest of my life. I knew the nerves came from the flower, a fear of something strange happening from its magic, along with my inexperience.

With a shaking hand I grasped his member, he's hard under my palm and I felt up his shaft, my need increasing as I had been so close to my release. He strained his muscles, the ones at his torso growing taut. With a shift, I run his head up my slit to press to my clit and I gasped out, arching with my breasts on display as they come forward. "Oh." I could orgasm from this alone. My core gripped and I shivered, growing so hot I feared I'd explode if I didn't do... something. Do... this.

Lining him up, I took a deep breath, looking him in the eye as I pressed down. He leaned up to look at us joining and I curled forward, our foreheads meeting to watch in sync. I prodded, moving him into me. I stretched, not painfully but a little uncomfortable. His head went a few centimeters deeper and I stopped, shaking too badly to continue.

"You're so hot, it's like a silky, wet, forge." He murmured. His untied hand grabbed my wrist at his side and slid it up my arm, to cup at my elbow. I rose up, lowering myself a little further and my juices made the entrance slippery. The waves of my impending orgasm ebbed, receding from my shore, but I didn't mind.

"We're one," I whispered, feeling bold from his crude confession. An impulsive thought invaded, 'just get it over with' and I listened to it. I sat, in a smooth motion that ended in a strangling gasp from the both of us, our breaths mingled as he's fully inside me. The pinch of pain, like a needle pricking inside my core, surprised me. "Oh." I groused as I gripped at the hand tied to mine with alarm, freezing in place. A strange throbbing came from my core, stretching with the intrusion, uncomfortable and I was afraid to move.

"Fuuuck." Meliodas murmured, moving his hand from my elbow to my head, weaving his fingers into my hair. "Are you okay?" He asked, panting and straining as if he were in pain too. I nodded, biting my lip but unable to look away from my core flush with his. We were one.

"I'm... gonna heal it," I warned him, using my free hand to touch my lower abdomen and a white glow emitted, knitting the sore spots from me. Meliodas groaned, low and deep, as if in the throws of his release. I peered to him, but his eyelids were almost closed, flickering so only a sliver of his green eyes shone. With a little shake, I stopped, and his groans ceased too. Flushing, he focused on me with a satisfied smile. Did he think of my healing as sexual? The grin that spread across his face, all his teeth showing, compelled my own smile.

Now... to get used to his size. To brave moving.

I twisted my hips, shifting my weight from one side to the other just to experiment. Something twinged, not painfully but excitingly and I looked down again in surprise. Instinct told me to glide him in and out and I lifted my hips. He strained as I rose up slowly. He was slick with my cream but there was a tiny bit of my blood. "Meliodas..." I whispered, embarrassed. "I uh..." Should I clean it up?

"That's okay." He panted, struggling with something, "It means you've torn," he panted softly, "rather than stretched your hymen." I flushed, looking back up to him and whatever he struggled with ceased, he laid back, his head no longer angled to watch our hips. "My sweet girl wanted all of me, all at once." His free hand, not tied and trapped under my own, dropped to rest his elbow beside my knee, fingers up and tickling my long hair behind my back. "Explore." He whispered, tensing again when I pressed down on him and I shook.

"I've not... I'm so full," I whispered, feeling the desires rise up again, a wave not at my shores as it had been, but inside me. Reaching so far into my core that new parts of me came alive. "I feel you stretching me," I confessed, and I started a slow rhythm, meeting his eyes as it seemed to help him relax. "Are you okay?" I hushed, wondering if this hurt him? His expression was something similar to his injured expression and I slowed. His teeth were gritted, his lips grimaced back when I stopped.

"I just... need to... thrust into your hot little core and I... don't want to hurt you." He stammered out, I tucked my wings, laid forward so my breasts were at his collar bones but I made sure we could still meet eyes, us together.

"Show me," I demanded gently, his free hand came to my waist for a squeeze. "I'm healed up. Teach me how you always have." He blinked, his face easing. "Take me." I requested, flushing and in a blink, we were flipped again, my back to the mat and with the first slow rotation of his hips, he worked a gasp from me. I'm instantly arching, my spine stretched to meet our cores. "Oh!" That's how it should feel. My fumbling hadn't been near as good. It felt like he was stirring my insides. His weight was on me, his torso to my tummy and he shifted down, his head over my chest.

"Look at me." And I eased my head down to the mat, fighting my spine. He stared in apparent awe, raw. "I love you. All I can do is love you, in everything and every moment... It's you." My eyes filled and spilled forth and I nodded, smiling before he leaned forward, pulling our tied hands to his mouth and he kissed the back of my hand. "I will love you, as long as there is breath in my body, blood in my veins... I vow to you, Elizabeth, it's you and me 'til the end."

"Yes please..." I agreed, reaching up to him and touching his cheek with all the tenderness I could muster. Then his free hand trailed to my hip, gripping me as he shifted his knees under my thighs and my ass left the mat. He held me in place and I shuddered as his hardness shifted inside of me.

He pulled back, his muscles rippled as he plunged into me and I couldn't look, my body stretching, my wings spreading out across the stone floor on either side. "Oh, yes." Why did he stop? "Again," I demanded, and he abided, groaning as he worked my body with his and I couldn't seem to close my mouth, low moans that matched his rhythm escaped in the same bursts as his thrusts.

It was getting hotter and I dug my heels in, meeting him, and the sensations doubled down. I reached up, my wings moving me off the mat without me meaning to, and I wrapped Meliodas up with my free hand, the tied one on my thigh. He held me, his knees the only thing on the mat as I kissed at his face, raining appreciation on him, from forehead to chin as we met our frenzied movements at our cores.

"This is heaven." Meliodas groaned. His hand cupping at my behind as I used my wings, and legs at the back of him, to grind and move, growing wetter. I was gushing, panting and heading right into the pleasure I could feel closing in on me. He surged within me, so strong as he pulled me to him, muscles working toward one goal. He strained, face to the sky and I continued my affectionate, open-mouthed kisses across his cheeks and against his tense mouth. "I'll outlast you." He hushed, low and strained, "I want you to... cum... first..."

It's coming, the intensity of it made me shake in anticipation and I gripped him tight as I was dragged under and nothing but him existed in the world as I quaked with my pleasure. "Meliodas!" I yelled to the open skies, wings spreading wide and all I could do was ride the wave as I drowned.

"I can feel you. Your hot little pussy is gripping at me." He groaned, low. "You'll have it from me!" With the easing of my orgasm, I felt his hot lashings inside me, paired with his deep guttural moan threw me into a new feeling of rushing tingles. I shook, moving lazily to prolong our pleasure. We slowed, stopping while holding onto one another.

"I think I just survived seven simultaneous heart attacks," Meliodas muttered, my mouth was pressed just above his ear and I drew away, in awe of him as I stared. He'd shown me another thing my body could do. We'd made love. "I adore when you look at me like that." He whispered, voice returning to normal. "Like I hung the moon for you."

I kissed him, soft and I let my legs wrapped around him fall, but he held my butt firm, holding us together so our cores didn't separate. At some point, my wings had cocooned him and I fluttered them back to uncover us. With a little maneuvering, he laid us down, on our sides on the mat and he pulled himself from me. I shivered, cuddling closer. "I want to do that again," I proclaimed to him, earnestly meeting his eyes.

"As often as possible." He agreed and I laughed, our hands still tied by our hips. "In a few minutes, I just want to hold you." And he did, tucking me closer and I felt so connected to this man. Then he opened his mouth and the moment passed. "I'll show you over and over, how nice it is between us." Oh, he'll never forget that, will he?

"It is nice though," I whispered honestly and he laughed.


	39. A Relief

Our First Fall  
A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
BellaCreatura Beta'd this chapter and she deserves all the cookies. thank you!

Chapter Thirty-Nine: A Relief

We'd taken our time. At the theater and after when we traveled back, stopping for frequent breaks. Eventually, the fog of the Fairy Forest was visible ahead and my happy mood faded. Our three days together had been the smallest break from the war, from all the problems we still faced.

"If your wings are tired, we can stop." He quipped and he waggled his eyebrows at me when I looked over to him. "Or I can carry you." He had everything in his arms already, sword over his shoulder. He hadn't let me touch the bags and I flushed. Meliodas was prolonging our return.

"Let's stop in the forest," I told him, looking around us. I felt like we were being watched, or maybe it was just because I knew we would be under so many gazes where we were headed? His dark wings were shaped like my main ones and I wondered if he had done it on purpose or not. There were even dark feather-like shapes and the same swoop to the tips. After a few paces of silence, I broke it. "Do you... think my wings are weird?" I asked.

He looked to me, eyes wide in surprise. "What kind of question is that?" He puzzled, and I was nervous as he studied my wings and then my face. Meliodas looked genuinely perturbed. We reached the fog and together we angled for the ground, touching feet first on the soft springy moss layer.

"So... you don't think they look like chicken wings?" I was thinking of the kid from Belialuin who had said that during the festival. I grew morose, hoping he made it out alive... that all of them found a way to protect themselves or escape. Meliodas though, his eyes flashed into his dark black and his brows angled in, angry?

"Chicken wings?" He inquired harshly, and I flushed, realizing immediately he was thinking of his fellow Commandment, eating my wings. "Oh. No, no!" So I rushed into the story of the kid at the festival and how it might be weird because Meliodas' people weren't born with wings. Although... thinking about it, they were born with many other appendages and body shapes... His anger faded fast but his eyes stayed dark, his demon mark swirled over his eye.

"I was embarrassed as a child," I admitted, shaking them out and losing some feathers. "Just like with my fevers. I was a late bloomer." They had grown a full year after they should have sprouted. We entered the fog as I was speaking.

"Same." He smirked, looking down at himself with a wave over his torso and I shyly gazed over his body. "I like your wings. They are natural, and they shiver in sync with your core when it milks my cock." I grew so warm with his words I had to look away, burning with embarrassment from his brashness.

"I... I like your body." I stuttered, having not been aware that my wings did that. "You're very fit," I whispered, stealing a shy glance at him and he was smiling, green eyes open but his demon mark stayed in place.

He hummed a low groan, "Your body makes me wish I had more hands." Demons did have multiple limbs from time to time. His hands were full with our things but his gaze burned into me, roaming. The Massive trees of the forest surrounded us. Almost instantly I was looking for a hidden corner we could steal away to but from my gaze flitting around I spotted, just before us, Drole with Gloxinia at his shoulder stepping toward us.

"The two of you haven't changed," Gloxinia laughed, "More hands..." The fairy shook his head, continuing, "Groping is about as far as you'll get with a goddess like Elizabeth." Drole chuckled, his deep voice carrying, a flock of birds abandoned their perches from the sound in a rush. Drole nodded over to Meliodas in agreeance but Gloxinia greeted me like a friend, only waving at a distance to Meliodas. I frowned. What did he mean, a goddess like me? Meliodas laughed, giving me a secret, winning, smile as he jumped up to touch a fist with Drole, the straps of the bags still in his fist.

Meliodas lets them rib him for 'being satisfied with a squeeze or two' and I hated the whole talk but he never corrected them. Was it to protect my reputation or because it was none of their business? We moved deeper into the trees as they moved on to a more important topic, an update on what was happening at The Light of Grace.

"The attacks are getting closer and closer, we've been fighting our all. Giants and Fairies are swarming the place in droves." Gloxinia looked grim as we walked through the forest using the most direct way to our stronghold. "We're to fight together, the four of us. The strongest of our clans... Dispatched at any rumor of a Commandment appearing."

We reached The Light of Grace without our impromptu forest hook-up. People were everywhere, the place swarming with bodies and out front, the commotion from the fires around back by the barrack had carried. Some goddesses greeted us back, others rushed away but after being updated by Drole and Gloxinia the two of us were somber while walking into Stigma's homebase. On our way to our room, we passed the peace room and voices were raised inside. "We've not fallen to that desperate level yet!" I heard a deep male voice yell. "I commissioned it, I won't allow it to be wasted! The Deity herself wants this." Ludociel's voice I could identify as I knew that condescension well.

Meliodas and I shared a look but he shook his head, no. We moved on, and I understood. Why break this feeling between us with Ludociels newest rant? If we could sneak a few more hours of peace, we should.

Back in our room, Meliodas tossed our bags to the side, Merlin's damp packed bag among them and his sword was laid against the wall, angled to fit in here. Everything looked the same, but it felt different. Something in the pit of my stomach said we shouldn't be here. Did I just want to be away from this mess? Or did I miss our time alone? "Something isn't right," I whispered and Meliodas doesn't look at me, hair obscuring his face.

"Yeah... I feel it too." He admitted, coming to me and with his hands on either of my shoulders, he tilted up to kiss me, and I met him. The tension eased. 'He's here. Everything will be okay as long as Meliodas is at my side.' "Hmmm." He hummed against my lips before pulling back, grinning. "That's better." Meliodas tapped my behind. "Let's see how many rounds we can go before you pass out."

"Yeah, let's do that," I agreed, eagerly going for his shirt and he laughed. We made love a handful of times, on the floor, in the chair and frantically along the wall, before I felt the exhaustion. Meliodas slowed, I knew he intended to stop and I wouldn't have any of that. I used my magic to reinvigorate myself and he laughed, pure joy on his face before it twisted into eagerness, telling me "a challenge? I absolutely accept."

The next day, after an hour nap we had to call our 'nights sleep', we were awoken to frantic pounding at our door. I could hear rushing footfalls in the hall.

Meliodas answered the door, pulling on a pair of pants on his way. Gloxinia's panicked face was on the other side. "A Commandment in the Valley of Fossils!" He started, our unit was already being dispatched? We'd not seen any of the Archangels yet. Gloxinia stated he needed to tell Drole and that we'd meet where we'd agreed yesterday. I slipped from under the covers, glad with all Gloxinia's stress he hadn't noticed me naked in bed. We dressed in a rush.

"We need to check in with Ludociel." I said, neither of us had wanted to when we had gotten in and Meliodas nodded, eyes pinching. To spare him the task I added, "I can do it, you can meet with the others first, just don't fight without me. Don't leave me." I worried as I finished dressing. I stepped to him, wanting to feel him again. After our repeated exploration of the other's body last night I shouldn't need to feel him this intensely but my tummy was twisted in knots from the strange danger I kept sensing. He agreed, reaching up to wrap around me, pulling me to him for a kiss.

"Elizabeth," Meliodas spoke after he pulled away, face easing with our tender caresses. "I'll fight with Stigma for as long as you want, but... this isn't where we should be to bring this war to an end." He confessed. I was not sure how to take it, there's more to it and I needed him to elaborate but he's moving, gathering up his sword before I could process his words. "I'll meet the others, we'll wait for you. Be safe." He told me, he went out the door, looking back at me. Two others rushed past, first a goddess with flapping wings and next a human on stumbling long legs. He stepped back to me and I glided forward, kissing him again in the doorway. His knuckles found my cheek and my grip fisted his shirt.

No words needed to be spoken, we knew. Our shared smile did the talking for us, our tender kisses and our bodies expressed our feelings over and over again. We separated, turning in opposite directions. I went in search of Ludociel while Meliodas left for our meeting spot and knowing Gloxinia and Drole were waiting, I hurried. I knew where to go in the fairy forest. When the four of us had walked through yesterday, they'd had a plan for this event. Drole and Gloxinia had been prepped, Meliodas and I had slacked in our duty but we'd still get the job done.

I flew through the halls passing other frantic people moving from one side of the building to the other. I found Ludociel in the peace room, the doors opened from a man rushing out and I slipped in. He's hunched over the board, a few council members at his side. When I glided farther in, he looked up and I could tell from his sallow skin and dark circles that he's exhausted. A man at his side continued, "We're being assaulted on too many sides. We need another unit to prevent their intrusion into the forest. Dispatch Mael, he alone is capable-" Ludociel held up a hand, barked an order to a messenger and a girl from behind flew off, having accepted the task passing me in the air, radiating anxiety, her wings fluttered aggressively.

As I approached, my eye was drawn across the pegs of the attacks. Yellow indicators were surrounding the forest, demons were trying to find a way in. I only briefly noted the positions as something else drew my eye. Over the portion of the map where the forest was represented is a large circular stone relief. It was the created piece that Dabuzu had been commissioned to make. The different clans coming together in depicted stone. The center was still empty, an indentation where something twisted in a loop should rest.

"Elizabeth. I need you to fight." Ludociel spoke. "No more stunts for the public, I need you to take care of the threat for the sake of your people."

The angel councilman at his side scowled. "The City has fallen from the skies!" He sneered, "Our bait is set, now let's activate the trap. We'll use their power to activate the Coffin." I froze, the city had fallen? Lady Graelle, Emilee and all the kids at Charity's home flashed in my mind. I pushed it aside, they may have been evacuated.

"What trap?" I asked and Ludociel snapped.

"A Commandment is here-" Ludociel points on the map "killing and trying to force his way into the forest and you want to talk!?" He stood to his full height. "Save your people, Elizabeth. Go!"

With one last look at the ominous stone on the table, I abided, intent to find Meliodas. He's right. Being with Stigma wasn't how we stop this. He'd left his people, imbalancing the power and if I left mine, it would equal out again. I wouldn't stop trying to prevent fights, this bloody pointless war, but Meliodas and I could be our own separate force. We could appeal to both sides, trying to bridge the gap and eradicate the hate, through co-existence.

Outside of The Light of Grace, fewer soldiers were rushing around, no guards were at the doors. I flew through the massive trees, up over the canopy to the giant mushroom patch. Just seeing him, below with our friends, my heart lightened. We'll figure it out. I glided, smiling as even the few moments apart made me long to be with him again. After days of inseparability, a moment away felt dreadful. Drole and Gloxinia were strange in their greeting at my arrival.

"Your wings!" Gloxinia exclaimed, "They aren't like fairies!" I flushed, wondering if he heard me talking to Meliodas about my abashment with their resemblance to a chicken. I took it in stride as their humor often went over my head. They always seemed to understand one another though, and today is no different as Drole and Gloxinia acted together.

"Why are you bringing this up?" Meliodas had his hilt over his shoulder, relaxed, the blue ribbons wrapped there catching my eye. "They're natural." I ignored Gloxinia and Drole's jokes, grateful for Meliodas' defense of my wings.

I flushed as I tapped down from the air before him. Had he always been this handsome or, having been with him intimately, did he entice me differently? Perhaps I had just missed him enough to appreciate him now that I was near him again. His lips parted when he caught my expression and I smiled softly when his free palms rubbed down his torso like he used to in the beginning, at Heavens Theater.

"About what we were talking about before..." I started and his head tilted as if he hadn't caught my words while looking at me. "Remember?" I asked.

"We'll talk later." He grinned, adjusting his stance and his hold on his blade, his thumb rubbing along the dirty blue silk strip. "We have a Commandment to take care of." Coming from Meliodas as a kind insistence, rather than the harsh commands of Ludociel, I grew brave rather than shamed. "Okay, its the four of us! Let's do this!" He spoke, the differences between Ludociel and Meliodas couldn't be more apparent than this moment as he spun, demon mark forming and dark wings sprouting. The air chilled, his power emanating and my stomach twisted.

He kicked off and after a blink, I followed. Drole and Gloxinia did as well. Meliodas was leaking power, readying for a real fight. My nerves swirled but I've grown used to readying for battle. The four of us were strong, a small unit but greater still in our diversity.

The Valley of Fossils was a town outside the forest, at the border. The rush through the trees did not take an overlong time but it felt like the longest trek as the opposing energies could be felt from here. As soon as we exited the fog, we entered the worst battle I'd ever been in, but I have witnessed worse, it was like a throwback to before the treaty. We've come full circle.

Bodies flew through the air, but there were no screams of terror as I expected, just grunts of pain and bellows of rage. Giant white albions smashed the rock side of the embankment, tumbling huge boulders to roll and smash the homes below. This place had been named because of the cliff-like formation that towered over the town, the white stone had been strewn with fossilized designs. After this assault, the name would be a misnomer.

The air chilled, my breath misted. Meliodas trusted me to take care of myself and I did the same for him. He swung, sending back an attack as soon as we breached the forest and I shook myself from the shock of the death that permeated this place. We've devolved into chaos. This war had turned into something unrecognizable in its brutality.

We fought together, side by side, until the hulk of a demon came out of the destructive cloud over the village. I watched as a tumbling boulder bounced into his trajectory but the beast knocked it away to smash into a burning steeple to his side as if it had been a fly.

The demons steps shook the ground, his head had a natural bone helm over his skull. Two horns jutted from either side of his off-white shell protruding over his eyes and he laughed, his muscles bulging. He had more arms than Drole, each of his sides had three from his shoulders to his hips. He looked half giant and each of his hands had a different weapon. I knew him, not because we met, but because of Meliodas telling me, no- warning me, about the strongest of his kind.

Calamodios, the commandment of Piety.

Meliodas bellowed over his shoulder, mid-swing to reflect back a ball of hellfire heading my way to destroy one albion and the imps in its path. "Don't get near him, Elizabeth!" I flinched, unused to him being so harsh or giving me any command at all. Meliodas shoot with his dark wings in Calamodios' direction. He left me to fight the albions and an army of lesser demons while the three of them took on the commandment. I got an army while the three of them take on one man? A stark shiver slicked down my spine. If Meliodas thought Calamodios was the greater threat than all of this combined, he must be powerful.

Meliodas was in more danger than I was. I needed to hurry.

I drove back the horde of demons and nearly all of them responded to my call. With Meliodas in danger, my emotions had grown, my words to the horde heartfelt and true. My skills in this area had been honed after 'calling to hearts' in so many battles. I knew how to manage an inner demon better, never pushing a change but finding their own doubts, their own empathies to bring forward. An entire army of demons saved! Any relief I received from the act was short lived as I knew I was prolonging the war without another plan in action. The demons would return to fight again, in another battle at another time, as the war raged on.

I needed to talk to Meliodas. Our efforts weren't working fast enough.

The remaining albion, tall and thin, as it didn't have a heart. This beast wasn't alive, but a created thing with one objective. With the army cleared it was him and me. Wasting no time, his long swinging arm slashed across the cliffs to my right above and rocks rained, which forced me to dodge the falling debris. An albion was much stronger than any colored demon made by Greyroads, but this time my power wasn't sealed.

I dove in the air to avoid a boulder while doing the same motion internally, basking in my ocean of power. When I rose, I called forth my whale. "Jonas!" I yelled and the whale, made of light, sparked up under the albion to engulf the beast in my magic with his gaping open maw. When the animal twisted in the air and returned, he pulled the albion under into my ocean. The beast 'drowned' in it, laid out and crumbling over the earth where the animal of light had disappeared below. The Albion returned to its original form of rocks, clay and greenery.

I was panting in my efforts when I heard my allies, and Meliodas, stop clashing attacks behind me.

"What happened to all the demons? It was a whole army!" Gloxinia was frantic, seemingly not believing his eyes when he turned from his own fight.

"I spoke to them a while and sent them home." I caught my breath, overcome with relief that Meliodas was fine. "Deep down, no one wants this war." I said by way of explanation over my shoulder. My gaze assessed their wellness before I looked over the battlefield. So many deaths, the burning village and the destroyed embankment. Why? What was so important that this destruction was worth it? The power that overflowed in this land could be shared... greed, revenge, and fear were killing us all.

My lungs steadied as I glided down to Meliodas. He didn't look hurt, not even a scuff on his green crop top outfit. In my descent, he looked me over with scrutiny as I did the same to him. After so many small skirmishes, this massive one must have us both feeling differently. I myself was uneasy. I wanted to wrap him against me but the surviving humans came out from their hiding places, some supporting others as they walked over.

I needed to help those I could. I wanted to give these people some kindness after what they just endured. Other humans had been fighting off the army I had driven off, a few of the ramshackled bunch had weapons and were wounded. I tended to those that needed healing, waving off thanks.

"Elizabeth!? Meliodas?" A voice called out, surprising me as I hadn't thought I'd hear it again. I turned, Meliodas who was standing between the voice and me, was already looking that way. Rou? "You two joined Stigma? I suppose thanks is due for saving us." He was in a black tank top, his shoulders and biceps bare but his hands to his elbows were covered in the same black fabric. His pants slung low and he had a few other humans behind him.

"Rou?" Meliodas puzzled, perturbed, looking around at the village, his profile came into view when he turned. Meliodas looked deep in thought.

"Can we join you?" Rou asked, motioning to the others behind him. Meliodas looked to me, brows pinched and I gave a start. Something wasn't right. Meliodas agreed, bumping fists with Rou as if that sealed the deal but I knew that too-wide expression that everyone else overlooked on my love's face.

"This place is still dangerous, let's hurry back." I asserted, guiding the others before finding my way to Meliodas' side as we walked through the forest. We'd been away too long as it was since I stayed to heal anyone wounded. Those that had just joined us from The Valley of Fossils marveled as we showed them around. Meliodas pointed out dangers and easy tricks to remember when, inevitably, lost in the overlarge growth. Together we brought the survivors to The Light of Grace.

Their awe was short lived, Gloxinia and Drole acting as if they too had never seen such a wonder as our own compound came into view. Were they mocking the humans? That didn't seem like their style of humor.

We began our climb up and on the landing halfway up the massive steps, giants and fairies guarded on either side. They returned too. If so many were back, we must have staved off the demons attacks to the forest. Almost to the top, a body exited the entrance to stop at the top of the landing and I recognized her shapely figure before I saw her face. Nerobasta greeted us with condescension.

"It's about time. You went to handle one Commandment and it took you so long?" Her voice was cold. Meliodas blandly looked up before his shoulders set and a sliver of awareness spread down my spine, I knew I was feeling what he was. Our accent up, halts.

"Enough." Ludociel barked to Nerobasta and the girl bowed, her heavy bosoms dangling in her dress. He glided from the doorway.

"Kneel before our leader." She continued and I frowned, not at her words but the expression on Ludociels face as he came forward. Ludociel was exhausted but it went beyond that, he looked like a man on the edge of his sanity, he greeted the new human recruits. He welcomed them and with a flourish he called to the lot of us, the guards of returned fighters around the base included.

"I have wonderful news!" Ludociel spoke, his lips twisted, resembling a smile. Meliodas' stance adjusted to root into the stone but Ludociel's next words stole the worry from me. "The conclusion to this holy war that all races have hoped for will finally be realized!"

My heart leaped, my fists gripped at the hem of my dress and I stepped up. I passed Meliodas, standing just before him as I asked, full of hope, "We're going to make peace with the demons?" Already my eyes were filling, tears welling at the thought of the war truly ending. We'd make a new treaty work. I wouldn't be on the outside of the next one! Meliodas and I would lead our clans together.

"It's time we put an end to the demon race for good!" Ludociel announced, ignoring me. The soldiers on the landing below cheered and my racing heart stalled, my prepared tears fell, one from each eye before they're dried up in shock. That was not what I expected. With his announcement over, our Stigma leader turned back, heading inside and Nerobasta scurried after him.

"No." I whispered in denial, my muscles tensing as my fists gripped. Our allies were still patting one another and spreading the news when I turned to see them all. The only ones who seemed appalled was our group, even the newly found humans, Rou included, looked horrified. I absently reached for Meliodas, touching his arm. "Meliodas." I said, "We can't let that happen."

When I finally pulled my gaze from the troops of Stigma, I met his eyes, which were already focused on me. He's expecting something from me, like I would lead him. I frowned, eyes filling as I knew he would follow me, he would let it happen if I wanted to stay and he didn't have a shred of resentment for me. How could he not? It was my fault we were here to begin with.

"No." I declared, his tenderness for me only deepening in his green depths and I felt as if I hadn't earned such devotion from him. "Will you..." I stepped closer, shivering at taking charge, "show Rou and his friends the Barracks, listen to the general mood and what's going on. I'm going to do everything I can to get information from Ludociel and... hopefully change his mind." He smelled heady and I touched my lips to the side of his head not caring who saw. "He'll be more inclined to talk without you there... I'm sorry."

As nonchalant as he could make it, he pulled away, calling over to the humans and hopping down the stairs. Part way down, he looked back and I smiled to him, soft. He trusted me with everything and I had to live up to it. I had to stop this. Hopefully, Meliodas could show them around the barracks while listening to the gossip around, information is key right now. The returning troops would have been in the thick of the assaults around the forest.

Ludociel had been frantic when we'd left. Was he losing touch with his sanity? I was sure the pressure of this Holy War was enough to break such a strong, resolute figure. He needed rest, I could tell just by looking and that had been hours ago, I doubted he'd slept during the assault. I rushed down the halls, spotting the back of the two, Ludociel with Nerobasta, enter the room I'd spoken to my mother in, where my flower had bloomed.

Were they going to open the Gates of the Celestial realm? Now? I hurried to enter the room before they could reach my mother. The halls were empty again now that the intensity of the fight was over. Inside, the two were speaking to one another, a curtain of rich velvet draped over the mirror my mother resided in, in her own realm. Red seemed a fitting color, as the anger I felt from that day returned, joining the concern I had for Ludociel inside me.

Nerobasta looked calm and it made me wonder how often he ranted about 'killing every unclean soul' before this, which was exactly what I was walking in on. Shouldn't she be just as concerned? Did he truly want to exterminate all demons? I thought he was growing, moving to believe that killing demons wasn't mercy, but a murder. He had tolerated Meliodas, allowed us to share a room and fight together...

"You can't be serious!" I asserted, more aggressive than I intended but this place roused my anxieties. "You can't mean to exterminate an entire race of people!"

"Open your eyes, Elizabeth!" Nerobasta scoffed, fists forming at her sides as she turned to face me. "We are in the middle of a war! Killing the enemy is-"

"Enough." Ludociel cut her off, firm but exacerbated. He looked me over, slow as if assessing me and finding me just adequate enough not to sneer, but his nose and lip flinched up as if tempted. "This has been our plan for some time now." Anger boiled my anxiety away and I dropped from the air to tap my feet down on the tile. I rooted, as Meliodas taught me, ready to fight.

"You said you were going to bring about peace! Over and over in the Council room, that's been your goal!" I reminded, trying to show him how far he's fallen from his objective. "How can you say that, especially in front of Meliodas?" He had proven himself useful, kind and from his example Ludociel should know not all demons are mindless monsters.

Ludociel stalked forward, eyes growing dark in contempt and anger. My stance faltered, my tummy turned to jelly as he dipped forward but I held my ground just enough not to back away, his breath hot on my face. He was filled with so much coldness I could feel it leak into the air between us, contrasting with his exhales.

"Demons are the excrement of worms, as if anyone would accept they are even remotely the same life forms as us." His hand came up, his thumb touching my chin to angle my face up as if he had the right to guide my body and touch me. "Lady Elizabeth, open your eyes. Cut your ties with Meliodas. He is the man that is to succeed to the Demon Throne, to take over for the abomination they call King. You know who is the more fitting partner for you."

I scowled, pulling from his grasp with a jolt. He's stark, Nerobasta at his side looking shamed as if embarrassed for me. How could he say that? Ludociel looks fanatic and I knew he meant it, he believed killing every demon would bring peace. He thought so little of Meliodas, he wasn't listening. I knew even Mael had explained to Ludociel that he wouldn't be with me by The Supreme Deity's command and yet he was still pushing it. This man was our leader and refused any notion that didn't align with his desires.

Here, with him, my pursuit of information would get me nowhere. Determined and hurt, feeling betrayed by a man I'd known all my life, I sped off. The door tapped shut behind me and their voices were much softer to one another than they were ever to me. I found my way through the halls, stubborn, angry tears fell. I had to hope someone was in the peace room. I flung the door open, three council members jolted up from looking at the table.

Immediately my eyes roamed the board. "Where's the relief?" I asked, coming in too fast. When I reached the table to brace my stop with the edge, it jolted from my momentum, the toggles rocking and a few tipped over. The three Angels, dressed in armor with their Goddess symbols shined, looked to me with alarm. "The statue," I calmed myself, easing my shoulders back to look more in charge as the three turned to one another in confused ire, "where did it go? Is it being used yet?" I asked, acting as if I knew what it did.

"Ludociel had it set and we'd all know if it were used, it will take all of us to activate it." The short, black haired man had his wings spread wide as he spoke, a touch of unease in his voice. I nodded, taking in the positions of the toppled markers on the map indicating the demons retreating forces. Looking at where the stone used to sit where the forest was drawn out. "What does the black peg represent?" The white one was us at Stigma's base and the black marker was situated almost perfectly opposite, on the other side of the forest.

No one answered, the short one actually coughed and said he needed to update his team, stepping backward, away from me. I watched him go until I turned to the other two, both men I sat with in this room over and over, who knew what I believed. "We don't know." The shaved man admitted, his cheek flushing. The other continued, "We thought you'd know." I knew he was telling the truth as they both were looking warily at me. They were nervous, because of me? I hadn't pulled rank, I nodded, hastily fixing the little pegs and looking over at the pile of pegs we didn't need anymore.

Entire troops were represented with one little piece and if they weren't needed, all those people were gone. The pile was too big, losses indicated from both sides. From here, from Ludociel's perspective... it's a game. I knew he fought, he'd left on his own missions often enough but how long had it been? Was he so disassociated from death that losing hundreds and hundreds of lives was worth the end goal?

All the pegs were corrected and with a shaking breath I glared at the map. "Go." I told the other councilmen, both looked my way and neither moved fast enough. I swiped and slashed at what's left of us all, little toggles flying through the air and skidding across the floor. They pinged in the silence that followed.

How many lives have been lost over power? Why? My eyes filled and tears spilled over. With a last sweep of my forearm the map table was cleared and I sagged, my forehead connecting with the top. Over and over, I tapped my head on the solid piece trying to find a way to save everyone from themselves.

War changed people and I had to bring them back to themselves.

How? I needed to talk to Meliodas. He had a mind for this and we had the same goal. He'd make me feel better and my fingers twitched as if wanting to touch him, I needed to. There had to be something we could do!

Meliodas and I didn't fit here. We didn't have a side anymore. Stigma... with Ludociel as leader, was not our ally. Meliodas said he'd go to the barracks and I headed that way. The pit in my stomach deepened, the dread flaring to life and my breathing wavered. I walked down the steps to the base's lowest level, passing the bunker room to reach the doors to the outside. More people were here making it hard for me to walk around with everyone on their feet. Some waiting in line to be healed along the wall to my left as I could feel the healing energy coming from the room as I passed. Others stoically sat, shell shocked with one person in the middle of the hall looking at their own hands.

The air was free of bodies, so much space and yet not a single person was flying.

I asked a few waiting in line if they'd seen Jelamet, if she survived, but no one had seen her. Last I heard she'd been positioned under Mael and I knew he hadn't returned yet. It's possible she was with him but it's also possible they were killing right now and my heart grew heavy. My frustrated tears dried moments ago but I wiped at my face before I exited The Light of Grace to look out over the fire pits spanning the back of this place.

There seemed to be a contradiction in feelings among the returned troops. Half were tired faces somberly speaking to one another over pints while the others were flushed red with angry voices. I walked past a few fires, a woman sloshing her drink as she held it to her fellows "Down with the Demons!" and the lot of them drank. My stomach was in turmoil, I felt sick as it flopped over on itself. I sent Meliodas out here to listen and this was what's being said? I hoped he heard something useful, as my journey with Ludociel had come up empty.

I saw him and my realization hits home even harder. Among the troops, whom he'd fought beside, saved and protected... he sat alone at his own fire with his back to them all, me included, and my tears streamed. There wasn't one person here that accepted Meliodas for who he was. They'd rather condemn him what he'd been born as.

As I approached him, others called out their condemnation for a race of people they have never met and my decision grew solid as steel. We had to go. I stopped at his side as he finished a bite of whatever had been on his pike, licking his fingers with a full mouth. His lips still twisted up, eyes lighten to a clear green and I couldn't help the tears that rose. He was too good for any of them.

Before him, I fell to my knees, sobs taking over as I sagged into him. When my forehead hit his chest, my fists gripped his clothes and he embraced me, his head on top of mine when he bent. Meliodas didn't say a word, along for the ride and lending me his strength in a silent show of support. I loved him, I loved him so much. I had to fight.

We had to tackle this from the outside, I had to give up my clan just as he had.


	40. Keeping Our Promises

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story 

Thank you to BellaCreatura for cleaning this chapter up and to Lollyluvs for reaching out. Thank you all for your patience as life slapped me in the face and interrupted my regularly scheduled updates. Please let me know what you think. 

Chapter Forty: Keeping Our Promise

My head rolled back, hard wall met my skull and the dull ache barely registered as he worked between my thighs. He held me up, his muscles powerful under me as I gripped on to his neck and shoulder. My wings and back were pressed to the wall, just as hard and unyielding as his body. I was slick, sweating and Meliodas groaned, dipping forward on his upward plunge to swipe his tongue along my collar bone, tasting me. I heard him breathe me in, he inhaled headily. I moaned in response, feeling the encroaching pleasure wave.

"Your skin belongs against my skin." He hushed, heavily breathing as his hands roamed up from my hips across my ribs with wide fingers to touch the most of me. "You're why my hearts beat." His rhythm was steady, and he nipped as I quivered around him, my wings did the same behind me. I heard a low 'hmm' before he smirked, "You're close."

My hands moved from his shoulder to weave into his hair, and I tugged at his locks to pull his lips from my chest to claim them with my own. My tongue plunged into his mouth with a flourish as I tasted myself on his tongue, salty and delicious when mixed with him. He groaned, the vibrations echoing in my mouth and I knew I only had seconds before I was lost and I wanted him to come with me. I flicked my tongue across the roof of his mouth and pulled back to breathe his air, our lips centimeters apart. Our eyes locked but I could barely focus on his dark orbs.

"I like when you... fuck me," I whispered it, wanting to sound alluring but with my shy tone I didn't think I pulled it off that well. His eyes grew darker, his lips twisted and his hips surge ever deeper, with a little rotation inside me before retreating. I keened. I loved that little swirl move before his retreat, it's as if he was stirring my insides.

"I like this too, but I never fuck you, Elizabeth. Even when I'm rough." He hushed as he kissed me tenderly on the mouth. His touches eased as they moved back down to my hips, going from desperate to gentle, his pace slowed as he held me up, stepping back from the wall. I was on the edge, but with him moving us, the pending orgasm wavers in place instead of progressing forward. I shifted my hips in his grasp to keep our rhythm and he stopped to look down as my hips worked him, I looked too, enjoying the sight of my juices covering his shaft.

After a moment, he was walking us again, until we were at our bed. He bent, taking me with him while he laid me across the mattress, having never separated from inside me. The shift in position hit something new and I shivered, arching up as he rooted his stance, still off the bed with my rear just barely over the edge. He kissed my neck, my chest and his hands feel me. His dark tendrils erupted, the velvet flicks latched on to different parts of my flesh making it feel as if Meliodas' hands were loving me all over at once.

I panted, his pace between my legs grew devastatingly slow as if savoring the slow push in and the reluctant pull back. He was no longer racing to the finish with me, now he prolonged the journey. I arched up, reaching to pull his chest against mine. He obliged, resting his elbows on either side of my torso, his fingers trailed to the swells of my breast. I bent to grace kisses across his face, light tender touches of my lips to his skin as my hands roamed his back, pushing against him as if to spur him on.

The dark tendrils didn't waste the open skin invitation, spreading across my back from my arch and I felt the first tickle under my wing joints. A shiver shook down my spine and ended with a grip of my core around his cock. He panted, his hot breath exhaling across my neck and the sensations were building too quickly. "I love you," I promised, hushing as I left one last kiss to his eyebrow before the wave of pleasure overtook me and I stretched from the feeling, back from him. My head hit the mattress as I pressed my lower body forward to take more of him.

The force of the climax blinded me, my skin grew over sensitive where his touch seemed to sear into my body, marking me irrevocably.

"Uhn," Meliodas made a deep throat sound, "I feel you, your tight pussy is taking...", thrust, "my... cum." He quaked, delving in with a final push and fell forward against me, his cock twitched with the last little convulsions of my pleasure milking at his hard member. He sighed, deep in contentment as he nuzzled my bosom under his cheek, the happenstance of where he'd fallen in his throws. His tongue flicked at my peak and I shivered under him, his chuckle was deep and hearty.

My legs slowly fell until my toes tapped down to the floor on either side of his wide stance. Our breathing regulated and I sighed happily as Meliodas eased back and slipped out of me. With a little maneuvering, we settled into an embrace with the covers mostly over me and a bit over him. He runs hot in his sleep but always seemed drawn to me, which I liked since he kept me warm.

"Want to talk on the pillow?" I asked, sleepily as I stretched my legs out. My feet breached the end of the blanket and my toes hit cool air. His chest bounced as he laughed, turning so our foreheads touched. He looked so at ease.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked.

"Everywhere, eventually," I retorted with a smile. "I want to visit Merlin first." His eyes danced and I bit my lip before speaking again, "I know you said the pleasure district and I'm sure that is going to be... shocking," his nose crinkled at my words. I ignored it, "but I miss her and I know she'll help us stop both our clans. After that, you can pick where we go. We can take turns."

He nodded, smiling but while looking into my eyes it faded, the green looking bleak and lost. "Do you think they'll listen?" He whispered, a nervous edge to his tone. "My father's wrath... I've never seen its rival. Not many of my people will want to risk his punishments."

"I don't know," I answered with the same tone and volume as if it were a secret between us. "We have to try." My voice wavered and my gaze dropped to his smooth lips. "Don't we?" I questioned, suddenly unsure. What if the consequences outweighed any good we achieved?

"Yeah." He reassured, his lips parted with his words and they are slick from where they'd been connected. I dipped forward to graze my lips against his and his breath caught before I eased back, eyes to his again, more resolute. We had a plan, one that centered on us starting our own peaceful rebellion. Our resistance had been the two of us for too long, we needed to recruit others to lay down their swords. We could try to get our people to start negotiating another treaty.

With our power, our determination, we would spread mercy. From place to place growing our ideals that this war was pointless. I sighed, growing worried and Meliodas' arms wrapped around me, his nose breathing into my hair. "We'll figure it out. I've left my clan but I won't abandon them. They are killing themselves and don't realize it." He hushed.

I released a long sigh, my hand gripped at Meliodas' side. I had to be in the same position as him, an outside leader. The first to pave a new path for our people. "You're the only person that feels how I do." Tears well heavily as my throat squeezed and I tucked into his neck, my shoulders bouncing. "I'm so glad I have you, Meliodas." He made me strong. I wasn't sure if I could do what I knew I needed too if I didn't have him at my side.

He kissed the side of my head. "And you always will." He muttered, his hand weaved between my wings to rub his fingers up and down my spine reassuringly. "Sleep, it might be hard to catch more than a few hours when we're on the run." I knew he was right, we would always have an eye at our back after we betrayed both sides. To go against two gods. I shivered and Meliodas' hold tightened as if he could keep me safe with more skin contact. If only it were that easy.

With Meliodas at my side, I slept feeling safe but rose early, antsy as our plan officially begun. I needed to plead my case to the other Archangels. If I could get even one of them to question what they were doing, I could sway Stigma in the direction we needed them to go in. They had the most influence and through our relationships, I knew they each respected me. Mael was both the most likely to listen and the most likely to dismiss it, it all depended on his mood, so I had to be careful gauging him.

I tried to slip from Meliodas with slow movements as not to jostle him but he awoke at the first sign of my retreat. He groaned sleepily, pulling me back to him before his lids opened halfway and I could see when the spark of realization settled as his eyes popped open. As if he'd been up for hours, he took in the room as he rose to a seat, the edge of the blanket falling from his bare chest. I followed, sitting up at his side. In the dark, his expression was shaded but he turned to me and captured my mouth with his, his knuckles roaming up my arm. It's a soft kiss, one that relaxed my tangled knot of a tummy and I languished into him. His morning relaxed face had returned by the time we part.

"Elizabeth," Meliodas said as if using his last desperate breath, his eyes deepened and I leaned to brush our lips again.

"I know," I whispered, smiling at him as I pushed my hair back from my face while leaning away. His mouth parted in a grin, his teeth were straight and white, catching my eye. He didn't have to say anything, we were the same. "Maybe... if we don't move, we can stay in this moment forever." Our eyes locked, but with my words, it was as if the rest of the world awoke and the spell of calm broke.

A knock sounded at our door, solid and fast. "Lady Elizabeth!" The voice called with an edge of panic, "You're needed in the Heaven's Gate Room." I froze, my eyes grew wider while looking into Meliodas'. His face shifted to an expression of bleakness, little pricks of black at the center of his green orbs as his pupils shrunk to pin-size. I heard the footsteps retreat from my door in a rush without me saying a word in confirmation or otherwise.

I moved to my knees, dropping the blanket to move over Meliodas but his hand braced my shoulder. "Don't go." He told me, his brows pinched together but it's the only expression I caught before his face moved into my hair. His other hand cupped the back of my head to hold me and I reciprocated. "You know that feeling you were talking about last night? The pit in your stomach..." I nodded into his shoulder, feeling his tension with my arms wrapped around him. "I feel it too and I can't seem to shake it."

His voice wavered and for a moment I was reminded of him, completely black in the bathtub back in his rooms in the Demon Kingdom. Meliodas... was afraid. He couldn't go with me and we swore we were in this together from now on. "Okay." I whispered and I thought he relaxed a little, "but I need to see the other Archangels. I want to try one more time... before we make our own way."

With firm arms moving around my torso, Meliodas held me to him, pressing his chest to mine and I was happy being against him. Moments passed where it was just the sound of our steady breathing before we both knew it'd been too long. Together, we reluctantly pulled away, dressing while going over reminders and our plan.

"You know where we're meeting?" He asked and I chuckled over at him, smiling at his flushed face. He'd asked that already and of course I knew where to go. He must be nervous to need this level of reassurance. He'd never needed it from me before. We didn't have clean clothes and in my rush I put on yesterday's clothes again, he had done the same. "I can just follow you, wait in the hall..."

"We need to sneak off to meet the demons, you know they are recuperating for another attack. We must intercept them before they rally and I need you to find Drole and Gloxinia. They are our allies and if they join us now, at the start... We have a better chance to make this work." He came to me, hands finding my hips and I nuzzled him. His lips parted and I pulled away to watch his expression relax.

"Tell me we'll come out of this together and I'll believe you." He breathed, lids half-open as he peered up at me. I smiled, my hands rising to his face.

"Is that what you're worried about?" I inquired, but I knew what he needed and I couldn't give it to him. I felt the dread too. "I... won't live without you. Where you go, I go. Even if we die, I'll always find you again, in this world or the next." For a blink, his eyes were stark but they eased, comforted to an extent.

"I promise you, Elizabeth." He croaked, his tight voice returned reminding me of his binding vows to me. "I'll live with you or die by your side, those are the only acceptable options for me." My throat pinched and it hurt to swallow. I didn't want him to die but a larger part of me, the dominant chunk, wanted to be with him no matter the cost. My smile was watery and his returning one was shaky.

We'd wasted too much of our morning prolonging this, the two of us leaving our rooms, but still had a hard time separating as we stood outside our door. He had our things, intent to stash them in our meeting place before finding our Fairy and Giant friend. The morning was early but war meant very little rest for anyone, us included.

"You have an hour away from me, Elizabeth, or I tear this place down assuming the worst," Meliodas told me, shifting into his demon self. He didn't sport his mark but I felt his powers rise.

"An hour," I confirmed, we turned in opposite directions, walking away but at the end of the hall I turned back. He's at the far end, also looking back and we smiled, sharing a moment. "I love you!" I yelled, my voice echoing from the height of the walls.

He chuckled, the sound softly reached me before he yelled back, "I know!" He may just be repeating my words from earlier but I hoped he did know. My love for him consumed every part of me and he should be assured that he was it for me. Had I done enough to show him? I doubted I ever could, not even with a hundred lifetimes.

I had to do more for him. I would, I was going to meet him sacrifice for sacrifice. Starting with either changing my clan or leaving it. With fire in my belly, I turned to find the Archangels. I knew where they should be but I took the way past Heaven's Gate room just to listen outside of it... but no one was inside. I even opened the door a crack. Either no one had shown, or the meeting was over. Maybe I had been a last-minute invite?

Either way, I flew down the hall, going to Sariel's room first. There was no answer. I went off to Tamriel's and I received the same, empty echoes inside his room. As I approached Mael's, a boy stopped me before I could knock. He had two wings, a very close shaved skull and a sword as his waist about as tall as him. Who would let a boy this young join us? He spoke as if he knew what he was talking about, "Never returned from the battle. He's hours overdue." I frowned, looking from the soft face of the messenger to the door. "You're gonna marry him, right? Don't worry, he won't let himself be killed, he's probably just sleeping off the fight at the border. He does that. I know, I'm his messenger." The kid informed me, proudly, and I flushed.

"I'm already married to someone else." I told the boy barely looking back, "but thank you for telling me."

It was then, as I was rushing down the hall to the war room that everything slowed down. The group of armored men heading my way, paused in their approach, my own wings quivering with the change. My flight fumbled and I dropped from the air, catching myself on my feet in a last-second reaction to control myself. Something was coming... I turned, giving up on my task. We were too late. The soldiers gave me strange looks as I did an about-face, rushing away much quicker.

I doubted anyone would pick up on this energy if they weren't familiar with its particular flavor.

Others were starting to feel it. A councilman flew by me going the other direction, panic on his face. I exited the massive doors of The Light of Grace and I turned, looking out over the treetops. A black cloud was approaching the forest, so thick I could see it through the wafting fog and protective magic around this place. My bad feeling sunk in, leaving me breathless. That was a mass amount of demon energy, an entire clan worth of fighters.

An army... lead by the remaining Ten Commandments!

If we had skipped a few hours of rest we could have made it. Both of us had been exhausted, by our own doing! Chose intimacy over rest. I flushed, ashamed as I looked around at the people noticing the incoming army. No! I refused for it to be too late, I could stop them! I could speak to them now!

With all the speed I had, I propelled myself to meet the army head-on. Fairies were panicking below, flying toward the Light of Grace, while I moved opposite their steady, panicked flow. I heard a woman's voice call my name but she didn't follow when I ignored it and I was grateful for it. Gerheade was too wonderful to be caught up in all this mess.

Too many forces were here, if we clashed sword to sword with this army, the casualties would be astronomical. As I neared the gathered demons, five were at the fore, and one I recognized. Naked in all her glory and barely covered with her licking darkness, Derieri hovered with dark wings forming from her back. She looked me over, coming forward before the other massive beasts, the swirling darkness of another woman, a man in a long cloak and a red armored demon so tall he could easily double me.

"Who are you?" She asked, looking at the obvious lack of fighters at my back. I'd come alone, I'd surprised them.

"I'm Elizabeth, of the goddess clan!" I answered, squaring my shoulders as I saw in the ranks behind them a few of my old unit. Nanat, without Yuri, not looking at me so I couldn't tell her expression. Beyond her, I saw members of the demon army I'd sent away yesterday and then Groder. I could tell he was lost to his demon, eyes dark and chest already heaving to fight.

"Did she come here to die?" The pretty woman, floating in the swirl of her own darkness spoke, drawing my concerned face from my old friend's struggling one.

"Can I eat her soul?" The red armor demon asked, his fingers feeling his pointed chin as if pondering what would happen if he did.

"Elizabeth? Have I heard that name before?" The man in the cloak asked, brows concerned as he looked to the back of Derieri's head.

The army of fighters behind the main five here was shrinking back, whispering to one another. I swore I heard, 'bountiful beauty', and I saw Pix, her three eyes focused on me as she bent to another demon at her side, speaking into their ear. I was not the only one that noticed the army behind the others retreating. The purple monstrosity looked back at the lot, "What is with you guys!?" He demanded.

"You can't advance any further!" I spoke, my arms spread wide as if with these thin limbs I could protect all of the forest and all of these demons. Derieri crossed her arms, spitting cruelly, the liquid tumbled between us to the ground far below. It's the cloaked man that spoke, talking as if explaining the weather to someone who's never seen the rain before.

"In the past few days, thousands of our people have vanished. We have traced their signal here, the faint energy of our kind is emanating from this forest. Do you know anything about that, Girl?" His words caused my arms to sag before I caught them in their descent to force them straight.

"You can't mean..." I started, processing too slowly. "You think we've taken your friends?" I questioned, I tried to feel into the forest but their demon energy before me was too overwhelming for me to trace another vein of it. "Ludociel is planning something so please turn back!" My words were met with a string of scowls but the army behind them was wearily looking to one another and I saw Conret, my two-headed friend call out to the others, "We know her!" As if pleading a case to someone.

"Ludociel, the Archangel?" The man in the cloak reached up, touching his thin mustache as if thinking. He'd been the only one of the five not to dismiss me right off.

"You could be lying!" Derieri insisted angrily. "I don't believe you!" She was intense, her anger was growing but I met her determination with my own.

"I just want this war to end!" I insisted. My intensity stared into hers. Her eyes were narrowed but she hadn't lost her will to her inner demon. She was herself, I could see it as her head tilted to the side thinking.

"Seems she's the one that sent our troops home." The purple spiked demon spoke, turning from the mass army behind him to look to the others before me. Shock escaped the red demon and the pretty swirling one. Some voices rang out from the mass of fighters in the distance, "Just looking in her eyes makes us not want to fight" and, "Running away feels right."

Derieri moved so fast she was like a blink but I didn't move as she stopped an inch from me, sneering at my face. "If you want me to believe you, release our people." She demanded. My heart ached, worrying that this was why the treaty broke. Had my people taken theirs? Prisoners of war? Was that why I had been taken? In retaliation, a bargaining chip to trade for their own people?

"If what you claim is true, I will personally start negotiations, immediately," I affirmed calmly as my hands fell to my sides, relaxed so as not to trigger a fight. Meliodas had outlined her powers, her punches were magic. The power she could pack would be beyond what my body could endure after only a few. Where Meliodas was physically strong, I was weak.

"And if this Lu-douche-el refuses?" She asked with a winning sneer.

"Even if he refuses, I'll figure something out," I promised, but Derieri's scoffed hot breath across my face.

"Fine. I accept, but we want that traitor, Meliodas, returned to us. I know he's with you." Her eyes shifted with a cruel glint, dark orbs shining. I knew what they would do to him, kill him or worse yet, surrender him to his father.

"No!" I flinched, my magic already rising in me and my hair lifted from its own wind. "He is my everything! If you mean him harm I will fight you off myself!" My fists clenched as if I could meet her blow-for-blow. If it came to that, I would try. I didn't care about the odds. I didn't look from Derieri but I heard the, 'kuh haha', laugh from the red plated demon as if I just made the best joke.

The cloaked man sighed, "So, it is her." He hissed, I saw him back up in my peripheral vision.

"Then our talks are over!" Derieri spoke, her darkness shifted around her as if responding to my own evoked magic.

"Yes, that is a deal-breaker." If they wanted Meliodas at any price, I wouldn't make the trade. She called him, 'The Traitor'. My choices were to give him up or face the mass death casualties? It took me less than a second to know just how many others I would let suffer and die to spare him. Nothing was worth giving him up.

" **Just as I expected from you, heh, heh.** " I flinched, heavily and away from Derieri when the voice of a distant Ludociel joined us. He must know strong magic to watch and communicate from so far off. I realized with a flush, he must be using the mirror! " **Thank you for holding them off, Elizabeth. You stalled them long enough.** " Ludociel lied smoothly as if he had plenty of practice at it and I grew confused.

"You tricked us!" Derieri shouted, "We played into your hands listening to you act as if you want to end this peacefully!" I tried to appeal to Derieri, telling her I hadn't been apart of his plan but... I understood why she didn't believe me. Her narrow eyes held hate and her demon rose, because why wouldn't I be working with Ludociel?

"No!" I hurried, "I didn't-" That's when the situation changed.

I knew power and what I felt then, it shook the ocean of magic inside of me, a call and response from within. I've crossed my blades with my ark to spark an atomic wave, the most power I've ever felt but this... It was an explosion that burned the flesh off powerful upper-level demons, the radiation of power that surged now, it felt like three of those condensed and trapped in a cube. An omega ark... I felt the bubble pop, the signature demon power from deep in the forest, the loss of life, of mass casualties on the part of the demons. Derieri hadn't been lying! Their army was here to rescue their own people and Ludociel had just succeeded in executing them before they arrived.

My shoulders twisted to look over at the destruction. Ludociel had planned this and I watched the last trickle of magic fizzle up as the flare of demon energy rose and died inside it from the center of the forest. The power eliminated everything living in that dome of magic and I knew it had stemmed from my mother. Had she graced the archangels with more of her power? My heart dropped, my eyes welled.

There wasn't a way to bring us back from this... was there? "None of them were even fighters!" The pretty floating demon said scornfully. "Flesh and magic is eroding away." The man in the cloak spoke, voice deep in its emptiness. That's when I placed him, he was Monspeet, the demon that could control hellfire to a masterful degree.

"My sister!" Derieri called, her voice choked. The damage of broken trust between our clans, it was irreversible.

I turned to face the demons, feeling so much empathy. They were fighting for love, for their people. Why did it have to be like this? We weren't that different! A blinding light erupted from behind me. Magic I knew as Ludociel's.

"So this is how Goddesses handle things?" Derieri hissed, panting as the other upper-level demons scowled, speaking to one another with their anger mounting. They were going to surrender to their baser demon side if they hadn't already.

"Hear me out-" I pleaded but Derieri's punch cracked solid against the side of my face and I fell, blacking out as I hit the ground with tremendous strength, almost as forcefully as her blow.

Woah... I blinked, my brain disconnected from my senses as I felt my eyes open but I couldn't see anything. I felt the power of the Archangels, could feel the protective dome forming as my people arrived and I couldn't help but leak tears as I thought, 'No, please just let them be'. The demons didn't need any more suffering.

Then I lost consciousness.


	41. Ouroboros

Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story  
Thank you SinfulFics for beta'ing this. You are a wonderful friend.

Chapter Forty-One: Ouroboros

"Elizabeth." A concerned, familiar voice called to me. "Elizabeth!" Meliodas' voice pierced through the haze.

"She's collapsed- ow!" Drole rumbled near me in his deep voice, obviously pained as he continued, "It's some kind of barrier." I tried to lift my lids to see if I was still suffering from blindness or to move so I could redirect the force around me. If it was too much for Drole, who had the defenses of the Giant King, it must mean multiple Archangels erected the protection ark.

I smelled burning meat and instantly thought of Meliodas' cooking, then the sound of sizzling met my ears reminding me briefly of Anarak and Zeno's end. That's when I felt the power, dark energy flecked away inside the bubble. My mind mulled this information over and somehow, came up blank.

"Meliodas!" Drole exclaimed, alarmed, "this is strong goddess magic, for a demon like you it would be excruci-" Strong hands adjusted me, pulling me up and out. The magic around me vanished and I was in his arms again. My eyes opened and the world came into view. The fairy forest had dark smoke billowing from the treetops in the distance.

Drole and Gloxinia's concerned faces were over Meliodas' shoulder and I focused. His green eyes shone as they looked at the tender spot on my lip and jaw. That's when I realized who's skin sizzled and smelled like burned meat. Meliodas' flesh had done the same thing in the cube when I'd explored my own power with that atom blast.

"Elizabeth..." He murmured as if in prayer, then his voice grew stronger. "Everything is okay now." But I knew he wasn't talking to me, he was convincing himself.

"Meliodas." I whispered with pinched brows as I realized he must have been worried. If the sheen of sweat coating him was any indication, he must have run through this forest to get to me. He smelled so nice but I felt myself falling apart inside. "I failed," I told him, apologetically, as tears welled and dripped down in heavy drops. "I didn't even realize... I should have known!" How could I not have picked up on my own people abducting and rounding up innocent demons?

Chaos erupted above us, a mass clash of light and dark energy on a scale that should scatter everyone. The power levels were beyond any normal demon or angel. This was a clash of those that were lent the power of their gods, our parents. The Ten Commandments vs the Archangels.

"You did nothing wrong. I'll figure something out." He told me, but his words didn't take the burden from me as he intended. He shouldn't shoulder the responsibility to fix this on his own. I couldn't stand by and let Meliodas suffer anymore- no, I wouldn't let him.

Above us, two of the Ten Commandments, Derieri and Monspeet, had changed. While I'd been passed out, the two had evolved into their final form. Meliodas had told me about the process, they surrender themselves to their darkness by removing six of their hearts, becoming an Indura. They couldn't return to themselves. In the end, they only stopped destroying when they died...

Derieri had grown dark and elongated into a hound demon where her long choppy hair swung out like a whip. Her claws slashed and I could imagine her punches with those would be deadly as after each punch landed the magic behind the hits increased to do more damage than the last. A combo paired with those claws would be fierce.

Monspeet's limbs had grown exceedingly long, from high in the sky they hit the ground of the forest floor as if like a spider, only far too lengthy. His face had stretched, his darkness concentrated and the power from them both shook me.

"With them like this, it would be best to let them rampage until their final heart gives up... It's the only way." Meliodas spoke, soft and sad but I couldn't abide by his words. I wanted to help him... I never wanted him to lose a friend again and these two had been dear to him.

"No. I won't let you suffer anymore. Not when I can help it!" In a rush, I healed his burned arms while pushing off his solid chest to propel myself up in flight. His rooted stance was something I counted on but it was his concerned face that gave me all the strength I need to meet the Commandments again.

I will heal them!

Ludociel was facing off against Derieri while Monspeet fought off and held down Tarmiel and Sariel. A true testament to the Indura's power as the Archangels were our most powerful fighters, granted graces and obviously a boost of something more since I'd seen them last. Ludociel turned to me as I moved before him. He's relieved as he was having a hard time keeping up with Derieri. The only physical sign of his struggle was his jostled hair. "Stand down!" I commanded, for the first time taking and using what came with my birthright.

"Elizabeth, let us combine our powers to take them down!" Ludociel howled, like a war cry and I frowned. He wasn't abiding, I'd make him.

"I'll save them!" I confessed and heard Ludociel scoff. With everything I had, I crossed my arms, invoking my new ocean of power to rise up and shout, "Let There Be Light!" My power expanded into two flower coated swirling beams and they struck the Indura at their chests, stopping them in their path from the very darkness inside of them. I wouldn't allow our clan's trust to be destroyed an ounce more. I wouldn't let it be too late for the damage to be healed between us. If I could save them, they would see, wouldn't they?

My magic funneled like a drill, my power spinning and barely breaking the surface. I held my ground, breaking out in a sweat as the Indura fought back, resisting.

If I let him, Meliodas would try to take all our burdens on himself but I wouldn't allow him to fight alone. _He had me._ As my magic bloomed flowers around me, I noticed the troops were gone. The army behind the Commandments... had they escaped or had they been torn apart? I had friends in that mass. Had all of those lives been lost too? I shook away the thought, knowing it was too late to save them if they were gone.

Ludociel bellowed behind me, the words drowning in my ears as the pressure of the magic flowing through me interrupted my comprehension process. Was he rallying Tarmiel and Sariel? What I could make out sounded like it. With my attention divided, I sagged back an inch as I realized Ludociel wanted to use the other Archangels to go against my orders.

I feared their response, trying to focus on them and saving the two demons losing their minds before me. I couldn't watch, but I listened as Tarmiel and Sariel refused him and my chest eased. The Archangels were divided and a sliver of hope, one I needed desperately, flared inside me.

Ludociel produced his blades at my back. I should have known that he wouldn't stop that easily. "It's pointless trying to save them!" He howled, enraged and I knew he was going to attack.

The two Indura moved closer to me, snarling like animals and gaining from my split attention. Strong demon energy flared, shooting through the air and heading right for us. Instantly my focus sharpened back on my task. The one person in the world I could rely on, the one man I trusted above anyone, hovered at my back between me and Ludociel.

"Don't worry Elizabeth, let me handle this," Meliodas spoke as relief flooded me. Ludociel wouldn't dare go against us now and I could put my all into saving them again. Meliodas came! Of course, he came. I felt Meliodas' demon energy chill the air and it cooled my overheated body, reassuring me rather than alarming me, which contrasted with the Indura's emanating power. Ludociel sounded furious but I didn't look away from my charges, straining my magic to dig deeper into Derieri and Monspeet's darkness to find their true selves again.

"Thank you." I called to Meliodas through my exhale, "I know I have no right to apologize for Nero and Aranak... it was basically my fault what happened," I started to Meliodas. Ludociel wouldn't have it, screaming his interruption.

"What use is there to apologize to a beast!?" I wouldn't stand for Ludociel's view that Demons were beneath us, beneath anyone.

"Who decides the worth of a being!? Whether a person had value? Morning light and nightfall, They bathe us all equally. Humans, Giants, Fairies, Goddesses and Demons." I appealed to the Archangels' hearts just as I had to countless demons thus far. Ludociel was too shut off, stuck in his way... but Sariel and Tamriel... they flew up and lent me their strength! They stood up to Ludociel by taking my side and adding their magic to mine!

"Go!" Meliodas encouraged me with his hostile cheer and I did. I released it all as I funneled Sariel and Tamriel's power into my own to save Derieri and Monspeet. More hope bloomed. If we could just get the two sides to talk, we could end this war. In the rush of combining the two Archangels' power with mine, I heard their words but don't understand them.

"Sacrificing the captured didn't activate the coffin, so we'll try Elizabeth's way," Sariel explained. I couldn't see him but his voice seemed to be facing away from me.

"It's our last hope, before we give our lives to you." Tamriel continued and his voice was so heartbroken I knew their last bits of faith to end this rested with me.

I felt the disconnection in the two Indura. The true selves of Monspeet and Derieri were buried deep but I uncovered them once more. Huge shards of darkness fall from the pair of them and for a moment, their bodies were suspended in the air before they fell, they no longer looked like Indura, naked and back to their humanoid shapes.

I saved them... After so many failures, I finally did something right in this war!

More importantly, I did right by Meliodas. With him at my side, confirming they were okay and looking at me as if I hung the moon for him , I let myself sag into my exhaustion, tapped. "Thank goodness!" I hushed, smiling at Meliodas and his smile back made my chest warm. There was nothing left in me. I wanted to make a joke about how many rounds this counted as but I was falling again, the blackness called me. It overcame me in a quick breath, Meliodas' panicked face floated over mine as gravity claimed my limp body.

︵‿︵‿୨ ୧‿︵‿︵

I roused without moving, drowsy. My body ached and I wondered how rough our lovemaking must have been before a rush of memories flooded my mind. Indura, my people captured and killed innocent civilian demons and I saved Derieri and Monspeet. My eyes popped open in alarm which was quickly overcome with confusion. We were in our room, Meliodas sat tensely at my side and I felt heavy.

"Are they okay?" I croaked, Meliodas had his head bowed to his lap between his hands but his back was to my hip on the mattress, he turned, relief shone in his eyes as he looked me over.

"Hey." He hushed, his face softening but I could hear the chaos, the fighting and the screams going on outside. We were still under attack... and for good reason. His hand rose, his fingers grazed my cheek and his thumb barely made contact with the cut on my lip.

"Did Monspeet and Derieri... did they come back?' I inquired again, weary as I couldn't remember much after Meliodas defended me from Ludociel's potential attack. I had finished the task, right?

"Yeah, you saved them. I carried you all, got them to safety and hidden away. I brought you here and I cleaned us up a bit." I thanked him, as I sat up to look myself over. A new change of clothes? Had he bathed me?

"Meliodas... We have to stop them." I told him. "Our plans aren't changing, I will give up my clan but to leave them like this?" I shifted around his back and used his shoulder to help move my sluggish body. Others would join us, I knew if they were given a chance, a choice outside of war, they would take it.

"I know." He whispered. "You shouldn't have to give up your clan, your home just to... I don't know, make it even? I don't want that, I don't need that."

I reached to him, pulling him into an embrace with his back to my chest and I nuzzled my face into his hair, nodding. "Your heart is my home," I whispered, referencing our binding vows, "not here or this clan," and he relaxed into me as I pressed my palm over his center heart.

"Y-yeah." He stammered, voice thin. "We'll stop this, then go. We'll get as many as we can from each side to leave with us. Derieri and Monspeet will, after what you've done and Tamriel and Sariel were on your side for that. Those are heavy hitters, with their example..." His hand gripped at mine over his chest. The war was tearing everything apart, I wanted to run, to just keep Meliodas safe but we had so much to do before then.

As long as he was fine, everything would be alright.

We had already packed lightly, our bags should be stashed in our meeting place. With the power fluctuations outside and the mass amounts of demon energy that seemed to radiate through the Light of Grace, we moved quickly.

We sped away, through the trees, jumping a river and ducking under the giant mushroom patch. The mass gathering of goddess energy there was a beacon, our internal compasses pointing that way. We were in the trees when the realm opened. I felt my mother step into Britannia as if exiting a shower, hot mist followed her. I could feel the steam on my face even miles away. I turned to Meliodas, his eyes were wide, his weapon slung over his shoulder slipped and it indented into the moss in his daze, handle still in his fist. Dark power sparked, another god had entered our realm on the heels of the Deity and the thick smell of sulfur drifted through the air mixing with the humidity.

The battle paused, the howls and clashes of magic from our clans ceased in response to their entrance. No one could have missed the shift from this power coming into the world. If they stayed, all of Britannia would crumble from the sheer enormity of them. I expected their power to clash immediately, for the hate between them to spark instant action but rather anticlimactically, the world stilled. The forest grew dark in spite of it being morning. The quiet felt creepy, and goose flesh rose on my skin.

"Elizabeth..." Meliodas breathed, his wide eyes were full of dismay, green shining. We were a small flicker of a candle compared to their fire. If we faced them, we would die. The war was over if they entered the battlefield, as there would be no survivors on either side.

I tiptoed to him, as if sneaking, to touch my skin to his.

A boom echoed overhead from the direction our parents entered the world. The ground rumbled and a crack, far in the distance opposite of where they were the ground split. I knew it as I could hear rocks falling with the earth under us shifting. The world was tearing open. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. It fell to us to drive them from this world. Everything here and everyone still alive would be lost if the gods played at war with one another. With what they were willing to sacrifice so far, an entire realm would just be another notch up for the two of them to achieve.

His eyes pinched before shooting wide to look at me as if he had to keep an eye on me. My chest tightened, my hands moved up over his cheeks as my forehead sagged to his. His breath was warm on my face as he vowed, "Whatever the outcome, we'll be together."

"Meliodas," I warbled, eyes filling as I knew what he was saying. The giant broadsword scraped along the dirt a few inches as he pulled me in to capture my lips as if to stop me from refusing his wish. It was a sweet, soft kiss, but I felt too desperate inside to leave it so and I deepened it, my tongue found his and he responded to our urgent dance.

The world faded away, another boom echoed as the world crumbled and lighting struck but we were no longer corporeal. I recognized this feeling from the Demon Gowther, our trips around the Mage-city and Merlin. Meliodas gripped me to him, breaking our kiss to root on the ground no longer beneath us. For a brief second we were in nothingness, clinging together.

Then we were above the clouds, a stone platform under us with both our parents, acting as looming Gods, emanated all their power in a show of clout as if they were flexing before an arm-wrestling match. I released Meliodas, sinking into my own crouch at his side. My brief hope of life on our own fizzled to a dried raisin, dead. I should have known that neither of them would let us go.

They pulled us into their battle.

"I gave you life! Power! And your repay that debt with disobedience! You've defiled your body with DEMON SEED?!" My mother's towering body quaked in her anger, a boom of power so loud my ears hurt and my brain rattled but I stifled my reaction. She appeared to be surfing on a wave of her own manifested energy, her body climbed and climbed tall into the atmosphere, her face a shining light so bright I couldn't see her features.

"Yes," I told her loudly so my voice would reach her, sparking my power to life. "And when we're done here I plan on leisurely being defiled over and over until there is no seed left in him to have," I speak as if this would be over so quickly and easily for us that Meliodas and I would be in the throes mere moments from my words.

Meliodas gave a humorless chuckle. His blade extended to its farthest reach positioned before me, between me and them.

"A CHILD!" My mother howled, her hand coming out and she turned to the Demon King as if appealing to another parent to agree with her assessment on just how ridiculous we were acting. Two parents deeming us and assessing us as children.

The Demon King towered taller than my mother but the mass of black darkness under his waist stretched like an abyss and I wasn't sure if he really was taller or if he made himself appear so. His armor was shining black and gray, with overlapping metal sheets. There were fatal looking hooks at the end of each of his fingers. They were serrated and I wondered if that was what had caught Meliodas' side when his father had taken him to purgatory during my fever.

"Son." The Demon King's voice echoed, the atmosphere cracked and lightning struck, the force of it sounding like a city-wide explosion below. How many people died from that strike? "Surrender yourself to me and all will be forgiven. Now is the time to show where your loyalties truly lay."

If he was expecting Meliodas to actually go to him, he didn't react at all when he didn't. The tension built until another boom rocked the world and another crash of lighting force hit the earth below.

"We both know I will protect her with my life," Meliodas spoke as if the gods were before him having tea over a table rather than seemingly a mile above. I had shouted for my voice to reach them and I felt like his approach was better. "What's important to me, I have right here." He didn't move, standing as if anticipating a blow, a flash away from jolting into action. He was used to fighting his father and I shared in Meliodas' stress, my stomach tightened as the seconds passed.

"You've taken her hand." The demon king snorted, dismissive and disappointed. The god looked away from us, we were not viewed as a threat to him. "I think a second miracle is about to occur, are we again in agreeance on punishment? Our bloodlines shall never cross."

My eyes rose to the glowing orb of my mother and through the light, for the briefest of moments, I saw the outline of a face. A heavy ball of liquid dripped from the side of her glow and splashed to join the waves at her feet. "My only daughter... the only child of mine strong enough to survive..." Her voice carried before it steeled hard, "I will never allow this! The chance of sharing a grandchild is unforgivable!"

Conception? They were worried about a baby between Meliodas and me? If that was the cost, I would pay it, my lips parted to offer up infertility but the next boom that shook my brain wasn't from power bubbles popping elsewhere, power erupted here. I braced for impact, but Meliodas reflected the attack, swinging his blade and bringing it back to before me. I snapped into focus.

We fought. It was like my first time in the cube, the force overwhelming both of us as we took hits five times more than we gave. Where their attacks left scorching wounds, ours only seemed to weaken my mother to any small degree. The Demon King seemed to feed off the fight, growing more powerful with each of our struggling blows.

With the next funneled attack from them, the world cracked below, Meliodas' massive sword shattered, the heavy metal ricocheting and a piece nicked my face before I could dodge the hit. Our insurmountable odds blinked out to null. We had met them, head on together to drive them from this world and to end this war. I screamed, the last-ditch effort as I plead to their hearts, "Power isn't worth all this ruin! We're your children!"

The pair of them raise their hands, in unison, and this blow would be our last. A sense of calm rose in me, but the opposite rose in Meliodas as he rushed to stand before me, arms out to take the hit and protect me to the end. I could see the tension in his shoulders, down the muscles of his back. I held my stance and said softly, "You were worth everything, Meliodas." His horrified gaze turned to look at me over his shoulder just as the raw power overtook us and we were blown from the stone platform.

We fell, my lungs were crushed and I knew I'd suffocate in a few moments, I reached for Meliodas, him flying just out of my reach and his ravaged, bleeding face found mine. His expression stopped my faltering heart. He was... crying? My vision blurred, my consciousness faded but I felt his touch, _he_ came to me. His arms cradled my head to his chest, my knees dangled between his feet.

He released his darkness. I felt the cool comfort of his power fade as he let it go. His wings were still! He could prevent our crash or save himself. My lips parted, to cry out to him, but with no breath, there was no noise. Uselessly my arms and wings flapped from gravity's pull on us.

Meliodas was allowing himself to die.

I had been the weakest link. I failed. If I had any life left we could run from this. I knew what death felt like, having felt it in countless others, but as it came for me the panic scattered what was left of my wits. 'Please don't take Meliodas too!' I pleaded, but his joining me in death is the only comfort I had. At that moment, I hated myself.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas croaked into the top of my head, "a life without you is far more terrifying than whatever world will come next." He was anguished. I didn't feel him squeeze me but I knew he had. I was slipping. "Wait for me." He begged, voice so thick he didn't sound like himself. "I'll be right there."

My soul parted. There in the descent and I fought it. I wanted to crash with him, wanted my soul to be right there when he left his body. But... fate was cruel. I watched our first fall, the last moments we had together and it happened without me. Meliodas' hair flipped around his head, his body shielding mine, cushioning my empty shell, as we slammed into the earth with the same booming force as a lightning bolt from our gods. The trees nearest us uprooted, the ground rippled as if a stone had been tossed into a still lake.

With the last of his strength, from the momentum of our impact, he reached for my bouncing body, gripping my limp hand to keep us together. My soul was called up but I tugged at the hold to stay. I waited, he asked me to wait. His dying request! I will ascend with him or not at all! His beautiful, ravaged face shifted toward my body, his eyes were unseeing, of me above us, or just of everything, I didn't know. He coughed up blood, a spurt of it danced through the air and then... his soul parted from his body.

He'd always been handsome, but the orb of fire that blazed forth from his body was beyond alluring.

Even as a soul, he came for me. Shot toward me like a falling star and I fought the pull to move a fraction closer to him, reaching with intangible light to feel his soul with mine. To be together so completely we couldn't tell the parts of the other from ourselves.

Meliodas...

I didn't have a voice, I didn't know how to be this new form of myself but mere fractions of distance separate us, the relief bubbling inside me when we freeze. We were stuck in place. A cold mist cemented our positions and the pair of us struggled. Meliodas' flames licked up and around, as if dry tinder had been thrown into his coals, an explosion of licking fire. My light glowed, reaching him and the barest bit of me brushed the flickering ends of him.

Instantly, our souls calmed, ensnared but... touching. Together in the overlap that was me and him. Then the two of us were summoned in the wrong direction and in the blur of torment and resistance, our souls were before our gods once more. He fought it, flicking cool flames in bursts from his orb core to expand larger and larger. My soul ached, from the loss of his, but more so as I knew... he was panicking, blind in his overwhelming emotions and crippled by his fear.

Our gods were so determined to keep us apart, they gave their bodies, their lives, to doom ours. Even their precious power, the very thing they invaded this realm for, they gave it up to trap themselves in half-existences, all to form our curse. I listened, centered, as the soul of my love fought his bindings in a sheer frenzy of fight. They made it so even in death, Meliodas and I could never be, would never last.

'We'll fight!' No one acknowledged me. Meliodas and I will overcome anything! Our souls were released from their frozen prison. Meliodas' fire shot to me and I moved with the same desperation to reach him, but the magic held us apart, chains inside our very souls that anchored us just out of reach. Their force was overwhelming until struggling became pointless torture.

We'd lost one another.

My soul lifted away while he continued to endure the agony, flames expanding from his internal battle and I wished with everything I was to take his pain for him knowing he wouldn't stop fighting for a long while. His determination solidified my own but my battle was different. I relived every moment, attempting to keep every detail but as the images played, they fractured and dissolved away no matter the strength of my resistance. The first time he took my hand to hold, the feel of his demon coin in my palm, the sound of his joyous laugh and the feel of his chest humming under my touch.

The very last memory that I had of him, I fought to keep it perilously as it faded from my mind. His face, the one he made when I scored a point for the first time playing Booru at Heaven's theater, our bodies pressed innocently together. He'd been proud of me and I didn't want to forget, I wanted to keep it all and... I couldn't. Melancholy tainted my soul and the glow of me dimmed without the memories that made me strong, without my reason to fight.

The gods took everything from me... confusion settled, hadn't they? I felt it, the overwhelming desolation, but didn't know why... _'Why am I waiting here?'_ I didn't know, but I waited anyway as it felt important.

 _Fin_

* * *

I'm actually pretty emotional about this ending... Thank you all so much for taking this ride with me and please drop me a line, I love hearing what you think. Reviews are welcome and very encouraged. They honestly make my day.

I do have an idea for a sequel (with Barbarian Elizabeth) so let me know if you are interested. I have quite a few projects going on so keep an eye out. Thank you for reading!

I'm on tumblr, if ya wanna chat or see the little extra things I write. The name is JacklynnFrost there too and I mostly just post about SDS. Twitter and Deviantart are under xSamanthrax.


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